The State of Wisconsin has a different, Progressive philosophy towards funding its libraries. In short, every resident is entitled to a card. If you don't live within a district, you might wind up with two or more cards!
However, your local library may be open fewer than 40 hours per week, and may not even be open every weekday.
Paper mill barons are among the early philanthropists that funded the first Wisconsin public libraries. Therefore, many of the non-Carnegie libraries appear in the Wisconsin River or Fox River valleys.
Left: building that also served as city hall.
Right: beautiful interior view. This was a totally irresistible card.
History on the library's web page, 'APL Centennial History.'
Additional cards at the top of the page.
Designed by Walter Holbrook, built in 1890 and remodeled in the 1950s.
History on a Dodge County Historical Society website.
Still in use nearly a hundred years later, it is now superceded by the Beaver Dam Community Library, on 311 N. Spring Street.
There is some dispute whether this is an Iowa or a Wisconsin card.
Subsequently,
Wisconsin's library has been replaced, so there are no on-line
clues I can find.
The RPPC is marked very lightly, and there is some sort of club (Kendall?) included in the view. Perhaps this will enable any surfing Clear Lake people to inform me which Clear Lake this is.
Real Photo Card
Library has progressed from being part of the city hall, to
taking over the 1928 city hall building.
Card by the Wayne Paper Box & Prtg. Corp.,
Fort Wayne, Ind. All that paper in Wisconsin, and they had to go to
Indiana to get this card made?
Apparently now subsumed into the Brown County Library, as its
Kress Family Branch.
The fate of this building is unknown.
Courtesy of Larry T. Nix, I now know who
James Aram was.
I do hope that the information about this 1907 building's
design by Claude & Stark is correct. The source that I had used for that
information had pegged this as a Carnegie building.
Evansville's Eager Free Library, built in 1908 by Claude and Starck, is still in vigorous use.
(L) Card is postmarked 1909.
(R) Card published between 1908 and 1909.
Repeated failures to obtain Carnegie monies (and the encroaching
end of the program) led the Fort Atkinsonians to build their own
Library.
By 1931, a new children's wing was needed.
Fire damaged the building in 1945, but another addition was not built until the early 1980s.
Prior to 1920, Grand Rapid was the twin city to Centralia. Both now comprise Wisconsin Rapids.
This library's
rules are actually displayed on the McMillan
Library (Wisconsin Rapids) website.
One should have been 'Do
not attempt to direct traffic from the belfry, no matter how
tempted you are.' The intersection of First St. North and Baker St.
must have been a dangerous place.
Follow the ladies walking in Library Park to Simmons Memorial
Library.
They are featured on an early E.A. Bishop postcard lithographed in Germany.
The building was designed by Daniel Burnham in 1900, according to Kenosha Public Library's excellent-- and whimsical--
web site.
Still in use, although 3 other
branches and Bookmobile service are needed to augment this flagship facility.
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| 1907 - 1909, by Brown Photo. | 1907 card by Curt Teich. | Hand colored. |
1888 - 1967
Gothic Light
Building dates from the era of H.H. Richardson,
but still managed to look light, airy, and welcoming. This
original building was a donation by a former Wisconsin governor
(per Nix).
LCPL's website is exceptionally well done, with histories on each branch and excellent photography.
Designed by James R. Dresser, who was taught by Frank Lloyd Wright.
(L) The fact that this library was built in 1954 places this card at
the tail end of the Real Photo era.
(R) Attractive 'Plastichrome' card.
The library's
website does a better job of showing how beautiful
both the building and its setting are. Recently I ran across this
library in person and was amazed. The Wright influence is obvious
in the marriage of site and building.
I hope they don't screw it up in the planned expansion.
An odd mixture of Carpenter Gothic and Richardson Romanesque architecture
that the library's excellent
site calls 'Neogothic,' this library looks welcoming,
reminiscent of a gingerbread house.
It survived a 1980 fire, among other events in its 100+ year history.
Many pictures are available on their website, including ones of the fire's aftermath,
and of the building's addition.
To the best of my knowledge, the majority of these cards has reached the public domain by virtue of the postcards' age. I claim full copyright on the text, which may be used in citation only. Also, I claim copyright on the scans, although given their quality, you might wonder why. Most of the troublesome scans are of early works, not linen-finish cards.
If you have evidence that any of these cards are really of Carnegie libraries, please e-mail me at (first name)(at)roadmaps (dot) org.
© 2003-9 Judy Aulik
Divided on 30 April 2008.
Updated 04 July 2009.
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