Part of the Carnegie Libraries: Civic Pride in a Lost America web site.
1935 Curt Teich linen finish, multiview card features the three 'Orange' libraries. What an optimistic, celebratory postcard!
Today, many of New Jersey's libraries are in acute financial trouble. Several are abandoned.
So, let's look back to the glory days!
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.
1903 Carnegie grant; 1913 expansion. In 1959, ravaged by fire, but rebuilt. (Can you imagine a newly constructed library being salvagable after a major fire?) Still in use today, and now known as The Free Public Library and Cultural Center of Bayonne.
Postcard mailed in 1912.
Address: 616 Line Street. (one source states 616 Broadway) Believed to have been moved from this
building in 1986. In 2004, restoration was supposed to begin on the abandoned remains.
I have no newer information about this historic building.
1903 saw three Carnegie grants. That's the highlight of this city's library history. Camden's impoverished library (CFPL) was merged with Camden County in 2010.
Two 1910 Carnegie grants, which might have been needed for this huge building.
It's a magnificent fan-stack library; exceptionally broad and deep, maximizing its corner lot.
Replaced.
Three 1900 Carnegie grants. Still in use.
(L) Mayrose 'Local View' brand card. Rather a nifty nitty gritty winter scene.
(R) Photo and Art Postal Card.
First (01 March 1901) Carnegie grant received by a New Jersey Library.
The library's history is on the city's web site, which states that the library's speedy growth needed a second (1914) grant. At one time, a children's library was built, but after a 1977 fire, it was reincorporated into the Carnegie building.
The postcard was published by the New Jersey Post Card Company.
Located on Long Beach Island.
Extensive
history on the city's web site.
Opened in 1924, the library was built to mimic that of the typical Pennsylvania farmhouse.
Its bricks arrived in the US via ship ballast, construction of St. John's church in Philadelphia,
and demolition of said church for a bridge.
The Tichnors really went all out on this linen finish card, making it look like a shorefront restaurant.
Two of Camden's branch libraries are shown here.
Address: 2nd and Cooper. Closed 1974.
Named Clifton Memorial Library to commemorate the WWII dead. Built in 1952, replaced 1991. Fate unclear, as the new library was built adjacent to the old.
Moderne building featured on chrome giveaway postcard.
Named for the state senator, William M., who donated land for the 1901 building, which is
still in use.
There are several other pcitures and card of this unusual library building on
Hackensack Now, but I still can't figure out
its architectural style.
This card is unattributed, but was mailed in 1907, shortly after the evenly divided back became legal to use.
Building still in use: library currently in need and appears to be prioritizing its services toward students.
(L) German 'Souvenir' card mailed in 1910.
(R) Very vibrant Tichnor linen card, all abustle with pedestrians and 1930s cars.
Built 1939, in Georgian Revival style. Merged ca. 1957 with the Sussex County Library System, whose site pictures some spectacular bookmobiles. It now serves as the Dennis Branch.
1941 Curt Teich card, mailed in September of that year.
Now known as the Reid Memorial Branch, and currently under renovation. It looks as if it's coming along nicely. The main location is the Julius Forstmann Library.
(L) Pioneer Private Mailing Card courtesy of Ira J. Bogert, Real Estate and Insurance.
(R) New Jersey Post Card Co. product, also never mailed. This may have been printed by Curt Teich: if so, it dates to 1916.
Its 1885 founding makes this Library the oldest in the state. The current facility was built in 1905 after the Great Fire of 1902: on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places. Its architect, Henry Bacon, also designed the Lincoln Memorial.
The publisher of the card is unknown; it was mailed in 1911. Over the entrance it reads:
DANFORTH MEMORIAL
Erected Anno Domini MCMIII and Presented to the Free Public Library of the City of Paterson.
Also pictured atop the page.
May not be the same as the South Orange Township Library.
According to the person who sent this card in 1918, those are chestnut trees. I wonder how much longer they survived?
Despite everything, still in use.
(L) With message (1906):
Isn't this a beautiful library? It has only been built a few years and we are very proud of it. On the slabs under the windows are the names of famous writers.
Shakespeare, Franklin, and Motley are the ones I can read.
(R) Dexter Press card from the 1950s. Add Henry and Scott to the writer roll.
© 2011 Judy Aulik
Uploaded 20 September 2011.
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