Probably I have more chutzpah than brains to put up my offerings, given these great pages that have beaten me to Iowa library history:
CLIP:
Carnegie Libraries in Iowa Project
State Library of Iowa's list of Carnegie library construction dates.
Fairfield (Jefferson County) library was the first
Carnegie library west of the Mississippi.
The non-Carnegie buildings are on a new page.
Monroe County
Carnegie-Evans Library, built 1903, apparently in
anticipation of high water. This building is a prime example
of inaccessibility for many.
Apparently still in use, I hope with ramps.
Card originally sepia monochrome, with an unknown publisher.
Unusual, asymmetric Carnegie building dating from 1903.
The SLI site states that it is now a gift shop, which seems like
a peaceful retirement occupation. Whether it still is, I know not.
(L) RPPC, never mailed.
(R) Bland, monochomatic card from Tanner Souvenir of New
York. The postmark is hard to read, but my guess is that it
was sent in 1913.
Built in 1904 with help from a Carnegie grant: expanded in 1907, 1940, and 1985.
The library's web site has a more thorough history, along with several interesting photographs. The 1940 renovation looks to have more than doubled the library's size.
Built in 1902 with help from a Carnegie grant: remodeled since.
I don't know whether it's just the card's quality, but this is a very striking library. The card was made in Germany for Jno. T. Faber, a publisher in Milwaukee.
Built in 1903; currently a museum.
Another monochrome card that is saved from being boring by a few details, such as the house (?) at left, the woman posed at the entrance, her companions at the bottom of the steps, the possibly leaded windows, and the details beneath the windows that look like 2 Liberty caps flanking a book.
No, I don't know who Dayton was.
1902 grant, dedicated in 1903. Demolished in 2004, ostensibly because it couldn't be made ADA-compliant.
E.C. Kropp card, never mailed.
Carnegie Library, built 1901. Currently the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. They conserved the library facade, but I sorta wonder why.
(L) Mailed in 1926. Close examination reveals that this is the Lublic Library, again dated 1804. Someone either needed the library or bifocals.
(R) Unevenly divided back card, postmarked 1917. Evidently not a big
seller for the Baylis Post Card Co. This is another Acmegraph
card from Chicago. However, they did do a great job getting
the roller blinds properly aligned. Maybe the little girl, seen on
the front steps,
used her parasol to direct the procedure.
(L) For those of you with a martial bent, note the honkin' cannon
on this pre-Great War German card. This time there's a man in some
sort of uniform on the library's steps.
As to the building on the left,
my best guess is that it was an early car dealer or garage.
Post-2008 flood addendum: the new CR library building was flooded, and will probably lose its entire adult collection, according to American Libraries.
Built in 1903; currently serves as an art center.
I hope they kept the stained glass fanlight and windows. However,
this is an odd mash-up of styles: Moorish, Federal Georgian, and
a hint of Prairie Bungalow.
This is an E.C. Kropp card, published in Milwaukee, and in excellent condition.
1903 grant, built 1905. Added to the National Register of Historic Sites in 1986. Seriously modified in 1998.
Unevenly divided back postcard printed in Germany for A.C. Besselman of New York.
(L) Frankly boring monochrome card with an entire back.
(R) Colored version of the left hand card.
Built 1901; opened in
1904;
scheduled for replacement in 2002.
As of January 2006, no progress had been made, and moving the
childrens' library from the Carnegie building to an old post office building was seriously
being considered as a solution.
As of 2007, that solution seems to have been tossed out the window,
and now, installing the library into the Harding School building
is the current idea.
Delightful RPPC by the Hamilton Photo Co. of Ames, Iowa.
Note the gap in the bushes. You probably can see the wire fence. What's not visible in a scan of this size is the 'Keep off the Grass' sign.
The library was built in 1904 and is still standing. However, it doesn't seem to have a website.
In 1905, Miss Flora von Wackerbarth of Chicago is admonished, 'Read and digest.'
I would think that this library would scare her into doing just that.
The building is just as foreboding today as it was in 1901.
Built 1902: addition sometime before 2004.
Quite an attractive library. Similar to the
Freeport, Illinois library, but on a much smaller scale.
Portholes have leaded
glass inserts, and the fountain out front is a nice touch seen in
few of these cards.
Built 1901; replaced 2000 and now privately owned.
Need I say I'm envious?
The card is unevenly divided and mailed in 1907. It was a product of the Souvenir Post Card Co. of New York, and was printed in Germany.
Built 1904; dedicated 1905. Its architect was H.D. Rawson, and his
modified Classical library is now called Carnegie Hall.
Its library days were numbered as early as the '50s and it was replaced in 1959.
It serves various functions
on campus, housing classrooms, a book store, and faculty in
economics, sociology, and political science.
Lovely YorKolor card, printed before 1962.
The Humboldt Carnegie building, according to the CLIP site,
was built in 1906. It must have been built one molecule at a time,
because the card states that it was dedicated on Februrary 9,
1909.
It fails to mention the Carnegie funding, but
there's some evidence not everyone liked the man the
way I do. One more big hurrah! for philanthopy!
No information about the card, except that it was never mailed.
The library building was built in 1903 and replaced in 1985. It now serves as an opera office.
The new library is in dire need of some windows.
Built 1902. Now an apartment building.
There are a lot of wonderful things to be said about Iowa City, and its library.
I was familiar with the 1981-2004 incarnation, and spent a lot of time there in the 1980s. Even so, I
can't quite figure out the construction sequence shown on the library's
history page.
Anyway, the new building is huge and looks a lot like UW-Madison's Memorial Library.
Don't tell them that in Iowa City, however. It'd only make some very nice librarians sad.
Spiffy style mashup of Georgian and Romanesque. 1903 Carnegie grant, a little late for the
remnant style.
What looks like shutters is brick, but the colorist may have enhanced the effect.
Today the building is an art and civic center. The library is now in a former Red Owl grocery store.
© 2006-8 Judy Aulik
Divided from my
Non-Carnegie Iowa Libraries page: 27 February 2008. Internally
divided on 04 July 2008.
Return to main library postcard site.
Visit the rest of
Iowa's Carnegie libraries.