Only the Mirror Lake branch is still in use.
Statistics come from George S. Bobinski's Carnegie Libraries.
14 Alabama Carnegie buildings were built. 4 were demolished
before 1969.
There is a general
history of Alabama libraries. Also, some information has been taken from
Bobinski (1969).
Built in 1905 after a 1903 grant. Card by Tichnor Quality Views; published by Knoxville Engraving.
Carnegie grant: 1905. Wing added, 1984. Major renovation and
centennial
celebration, 2006.
Subsequent to then, water damage due to
a leaky roof has closed the main branch (May, 2009).
It's currently in a local mall.
The card is from E.C. Kropp.
1901 Carnegie grant.
Per the E.C. Kropp card reverse:
This building was erected in 1904. It was made possible by a gift of $50,000.00 from Andrew Carnegie. It is a free library and is used daily by hundreds of citizens. It contains thousands of valuable books and maintains a reading room well equipped with current magazines.
Hardly lyrical, but it gets the facts across.
This particular card bears the number 28 and the notation:
Chamber of Commerce/Montgomery, Ala./Aug. 10, 1940.
Not the biggest section of my collection.
The righthand card is older than the lefthand card.
(L) Although it's a Curt Teich 'C.T. American Art' postcard,
it seems undateable.
(R) Note the xeroscaping on the older card. This is a Detroit Publishing Co.
card.
The Tucson-Pima Public Library site states only that the current building dates from 1989.
The Carnegie roots are never mentioned.
Glenn A. Walsh's web site gives a grant date of 1899, as does Bobisnki.
As Arizona was not admitted as a state until 1912,
this demonstrates that grants were extended into U.S. territories.
1902 grant. Replaced in 1953. Various duties since then, now serving as the Carnegie Center: the home for the Library Development Division staff of the Arizona State Library.
Red building that might have a low shallow dome. It's hard to tell on this card and on the Carnegie Center site's picture.
This is a Neuner Calitype Process card, whatever that was, distributed by the Benham Indian Trading Company of Los Angeles.
Arkansas ranked 36th among the states in successful grant monies.
1906 Carnegie grant.
Card by Tichnor Quality Views; published by
A. Karcher Candy Co. of Little Rock. Notice the two pickup trucks
on the right side of the building. Today one doesn't really
think of Little Rock as rural.
There were 35 Carnegie buildings. Obviously I have a ways to go.
Rip-off 'Blue sky' card by H.H.T.Co. This card seems to be one of the most plentiful in the postcard collecting universe.
1903 Carnegie grant. Building completed in 1905. 2002 renovation.
Library part of the
Pikes Peak Library District. It contains another Carnegie building, the West End Carnegie Library.
1903 grants: opened 1910. Eight other branches received Carnegie monies.
Now serves as
Denver's Civic Center.
Some early views at Denver: The City Beautiful.
(L) Day.
(R) Night.
(BELOW) Public Library and North Section of the Civic Center, Denver Colorado
City and County Building in Background.
Corithian style building. About ten years ago, I visited Denver and didn't realize that this building had been the library. I never saw any of the branches, either.
Carnegie grant, 1906; Building built, 1908. The new
building was supposed to open in 2004 according to this
site, but it hasn't been
updated in ages.
This is the first library website I've seen that combines the county
public and the community college's libraries' website. Interesting sharing
of resources.
Actually, Manitou Springs.
Built 1910: still in use, essentially as is.
Fabulous
history
page. Did you know that the library is also known for its doll collection?
Very attractive H.H.T. Co. card.
1902 grant.
Tentatively thought to have been demolished.
This would be an attractive card, were it intact. I had to crop the white border from the scan. It was mailed in 1911, publisher unknown.
1903 grant.
Still in use with a
1995 addition for a history room.
The card was produced for the S.H. Kress chain, often confused with S.S. Kresge.
2000 magazine article on the Florida Carnegie library movement. 11 Carnegie libraries were built; 7 remain.
A whole lot of history goin' on here. This is the third building: the second went up in flames in the Great Fire of 1901. Carnegie came to the rescue with a grant in 1902. Finally, the building was built in 1905. It was replaced in 1965 by the Haydon Burns Building. That took only 40 years to become outmoded, and was replaced in 2005. The Carnegie Building was rehabbed into offices in the 1980s, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Nice litho card by Raphael Tuck & Sons. (RaphoType) that
bears a Red Cross stamping 'Canteen Service (cross) Jacksonville,
Fla Chapter' on its entire back.
Really, what good would an entire back postcard be to a client,
without space for any sort of message?
|
| |
| Main | A single 1913 grant may not have extended to fund both of these libraries. Only the Mirror Lake branch is still in use. |
Mirror Lake |
(L) E.C. Kropp card.
(R) Publisher unknown.
10 Carnegie libraries in this Southern state.
1898 grant, built in 1900. Demolished in 1977, before its replacement in 1980.
I have to give the
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Systems props for its candor. The Central building was segregated, and their page
owns up to it. The African-American community was served by the Auburn Avenue branch, also a Carnegie building.
Desegregation happened in 1959.
Atlanta had the Southern Library School associated with the library until it moved to Emory University. It
closed in 1988.
Established in 1903. 1910 grant. The African-American branch was built in 1913. The library's brief history page is not very clear on the facts, but it looks as if the 1910 grant went to the segregated branch first, before the second, 1916 grant, went to the main branch.
Segregation ended in 1963.
The more detailed page glosses over the segregation part, but adds that the main library received a 1936 WPA-built addition.
10 Carnegie libraries in this Western state.
Pleasant Beaux-Arts building opened in 1905. Replaced in 1973.
Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and now serves as law offices.
1906 grant.
The Carnegie building remains standing with
an addition about 4 times its size.
Now known as the Marshall Public Library.
Isn't this a charming Curt Teich C.T. American Art Colored card?
1908 building, one of eight funded by Carnegie. FYI, the Western and Eastern branches were segregated, an unpleasantry not unique to this city.
The early chrome card was by Valentine-Souvenir.
1903 Carnegie grant. Card mailed 1922.
1901 grant. Destroyed by fire sometime around 1963.
(L) Card just cries out for some retouching work.
(R) Oh, so pretty, Mr. Kropp.
1904 Carnegie grant(s).
At one point there were 17 Carnegie libraries in the state.
The dome inspired Jughead's hat.
The 1903 Carnegie building was replaced in 1967. I don't know if the old building is still standing.
Photo by Heyn's Elite Studio: card published by Chas E. Morris of Chinook, Mont. Neat trademark!
Extremely similar to the Stoughton (WI) Public Library. 'Made exp. for the Montana Souvenir Co.//Photo By McKay'. Divided back.
Library's original building finished in 1905 and in use until 1985.
Today's facility lies at the corner of Tennessee
and Atlantic.
The Carnegie building was abandoned, but has regained its purpose as
the
Carnegie Library Center of the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
Postmark of 1922
obviously much more recent than lithographed card (L) by Sithens Postcard Company, Atlantic City, N.J.
1900 red brick building with Gothic touches.
First Carnegie grant: 1901.
Two views of one of the 10 Carnegie libraries in the state.
(L) Charming Tuck's postcard.
(R) Early (undivided back) E.C. Kropp postcard.
Card probably dates from the 1950s.
Lovely view on an evenly divided card postmarked 1910.
Tuck Series No. 2222.
From card back:
Public Library. The Norfolk Public Library is located in the industrial part of the city, on the corner of Freemason and Thomas Streets. It was opened to the public on November 21, 1904, the work having been started June 24th, 1903. Mr. Andrew Carnegie gave $50,000 toward the cost.
(L) Canegie Library, Washington, D.C. So the A.C. Bosselman Company of New York calls this impressive building on a divided-back card.
(R)
PUBLIC LIBRARY, WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Public Library is in the Mt. Vernon Square, at the intersection of Massachusetts and New York Avenues and 8th Street. It is built entirely of white marble. The Building was given by Andrew Carnegie.
Quote from the B.S. Reynolds Co. of Washington, D.C.
I'm not going to give their street address, although it's prominently
displayed on the card.
In use as a library from 1903 to 1972: converted to the City Museum in 2001.
I don't know if it was a slow process or the bureaucracy was that byzantine.
1899 grant. 1902 building. Replaced in 1969, then demolished. Sigh.
(L) 'On Union Pacific System'caption on Curt Teich/Barkalow Bros. Publishing (Omaha)
'C.T. American Art' postcard.
(R) High School and the $50,000 Carnegie Library. The library is in the background.
Late Carnegie building in two aspects: Built in 1916, demolished for its replacement in 1965.
Sepia tinted card printed on buff paper by the Bloom Brothers of Minneapolis, and distributed by the Harding Curio and Drug Co.
Built in 1907 and now part of the Fremont County Library System. Surprisingly, the Carnegie building is in the middle of its second renovation.
1914 Curt Teich 'Colorchrom' card. More of an 'Offcolorchrom,' in my opinion. On the library's history page, it's much more ochre.
1911 grant. Awkward renovation as seen on the library's website, 2005 edition.
1914 card from Curt Teich's 'Doublechrom' series. No idea here why Doublechrom cards are such special beasts. They do scan nicely. Note the car with whitewalls sinking into the mud of the street.
1904 grant. Apparently replaced some time after 1963. I hope it's still standing, but I don't think it is.
Card published by Herbert Coffeen, who appears to have been a paragon of good taste. Did he have this printed in Germany?
Salute to bilateral symmetry.
1916 grant. One of the last Carnegie buildings, and one with a far more interesting
founding librarian,
Mabel Wilkinson,
than library structure.
I believe that the Carnegie building is buried somewhere in the picture on the
Platte County Public Library System web site opening page.
Not sure if it's a Carnegie public library? Visit my postcards of unusual and large public libraries.
Drop that mouse and visit your public library.
(Or, if you're viewing this in the library,
set the mouse down carefully.) All the following resources were found at a local
library.
Bial, Raymond and Linda LaPuma. 1991. The Carnegie Library in Illinois.
(With Photography
by Raymond Bial.)
Bobinski, George S. 1969. Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact
on American Public Library Development.
Dickson, Paul. 1986. The Library in America: A Celebration in Words and Pictures.
Frye, Lonn. 1992. Carnegie Libraries: Restoration and Expansion.
Krass, Peter. 2002. Carnegie.
Van Slyck, Abigail. 1995. Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and the American Culture,
1890-1920.
© 2003 - 9 Judy Aulik
Last updated: 08 July 2009.
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