I still remember the sound of creaking hardwoods and the smell of aged ink and paper tucked within cloth-covered hardback bindings lined up on shelf after shelf of the old library in my county. Trips to the Putnam County Library were special occasions, reserved for trips to Greencastle when we didn’t have too many errands to run. My family lived in the country, a good 20-minute drive from the county seat, and errands were grouped and carried out on a weekly basis.
Of course, living so far from the library wasn’t such a bad thing when there was the magical bus that brought books to us. The Putnam County Library Bookmobile made its rounds to the elementary schools in our county on a bi-weekly schedule. If we didn’t already have one, we could sign up for a library card right there on the bus. Although I had been a card-carrying member of the library for years by the time I made my first visit to the Bookmobile. With an older brother who had gone to school four years ahead of me, I had looked forward to that day when my turn would come.
The selection was smaller than at the library itself, of course, but the Bookmobile librarian knew what kids liked, and the shelves were packed tightly with picture books and chapter books, stories and information we couldn’t get at our school library.
Sometimes I wish I was the girl who had kept meticulous records of every book I read from the library and bookmobile. I know that Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time trilogy and Judy Blume’s Blubber and Are You There God It’s Me Margaret served as important coming of age narratives for me, but I don’t remember if I got them from the library or purchased them on one of my occasional trips to Walden Books in the mall about an hour from my house. I wrote poetry as a child, but had I accidentally discovered verse in those library stacks? I can’t remember. When I had school research papers, my mom took me to the library to research. But what was the topic?
Oddly, the library didn’t leave me a lot of memories in specific. But here’s what it did give me: knowledge, inspiration, possibility, hope. It didn’t matter how old or rich or pretty I was. Color, gender, and religion didn’t figure into it, either. I didn’t even need to be all that smart or interesting or popular. I was welcome to walk into the library, look around for a while, and borrow a book or two. There really was only one rule to follow: bring the books back on time in the same condition I found them.
My old library itself still stands where I found it, though not in the same condition. It was built in 1902 and 1903 with a $20, 000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation. All the years during the 1970s and 1980s when I patronized the library, it was unchanged from its original design and construction — the smells and creaks proved that. In 1996 the library was expanded significantly, though it still exists under the same original mandate from Andrew Carnegie himself as written in The American Public Library and the Diffusion of Knowledge: “to establish free libraries, that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to that noble man.”
That “noble man” was Colonel Anderson, a retired merchant who allowed Carnegie and other boys to use his personal collection of books. That generosity inspired Carnegie later in life to spend $60 million to fund a system of 1, 689 public libraries across the country. My state of Indiana received grants for 164 of those libraries, more than any other single state.
According to Indiana Public Media, public libraries were a symbol to Carnegie of “the meritocratic philosophy of success through self-improvement.” Even the design and system of “open stacks” in Carnegie’s libraries in the early 20th century meant “patrons no longer relied upon a clerk to retrieve their books, but could browse the collection themselves.” I think that’s what I loved best: meandering from shelf to shelf, collecting a stack to sit with for a while, then carefully choosing what to take home.
More than half of the Carnegie libraries in the country are still operating as libraries, including 100 in Indiana. But many of those buildings that still serve book-loving patrons have been expanded, upgraded, and retrofitted for the 21st century with multimedia stations, high speed internet, and coffee shops or other amenities. Like the library from my growing-up days, the library in my current home town of Frankfort also was constructed through a Carnegie grant and was remodeled decades after its construction.
There is also the handful of Carnegie’s remaining buildings that have gone on to have a second life, much like Carnegie himself who began his philanthropic giving in earnest after the sale of his business to J.P. Morgan and his United States Steel Corporation in 1901. One of those buildings is Woody’s Library, a popular restaurant in downtown Carmel, Indiana. I had heard of the chef-owned establishment for years before my husband and I tried it. I had been told it was “like” a library, with book shelves all around. But when we walked in the first time, I knew there was something more. The creak of the floor and the way the tables were nestled among bookshelves felt familiar. Though all I could smell when I walked in was a waft of the evening’s special, I suspected that when the stove was off and the staff was filling salt shakers and rolling silverware, the smell of old ink and paper still lingered.
When I opened up the book-shaped menu and saw the history of the building, I finally knew for sure. This restaurant wasn’t like a library. It was a library. It was a Carnegie, built just a few years after my own town’s library. The construction wasn’t identical, but the steps leading up to the heavy wooden doors, the large windows all around, and of course, that wooden floor were tell-tale.
“Carnegie libraries are still the best buildings in many towns, ” Susan Stamberg once said in an NPR piece about Andrew Carnegie. That’s true of many of the small towns in Indiana. But Carnegie libraries weren’t just about improving towns. They were about improving opportunities for patrons. If you ask me, Carnegie libraries are still the best buildings in many people’s lives. Mine especially.
Photo by Tom Bower, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Charity Singleton Craig, co-author of On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts.
Browse more libraries
Browse more Indiana
_______________________
Is your writing life all it can be?
Let this book act as your personal coach, to explore the writing life you already have and the writing life you wish for, and close the gap between the two.
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Will Willingham says
There’s a Carnegie Library just around the corner from the house where my parents lived in my town. (A bit farther for me, but still a nice little walk.) It’s a great little building that’s been converted to a museum now. No such luck on the restaurant. 😉 Thanks for this great reflection on libraries, Charity, and especially the Carnegies.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Thanks, LW! Interestingly, in my research I found other Carnegie libraries transformed into restaurants. Even another in Indiana! You can’t beat the atmosphere, as far as I’m concerned.
I am interested how many people have a Carnegie library in their personal history. I would guess many, given the number of libraries Carnegie funded.
Thanks for your help with this essay!
Rick Maxson says
For last year’s Random Acts of Poetry Day I dropped off a poster at the Eureka Springs library. It is one of the two remaining Carnegie libraries in Arkansas. It was completed around 1905. It will always be a library. The family who donated the land to the Carnegie grant stipulated that it “always remain a library” or the land ownership would revert back to the Kerens family. It has those creaks and smells that only in habit old libraries. I opened an old oak card index drawer and the sound and feel and fragrance transported me back. Here is a photograph:
https://www.pinterest.com/theimaginedjay/eureka-springs-arkansas/
Doesn’t it seem like all old libraries carry these characteristics like some sort of formula of sensations?
Thanks for this interesting essay, Charity.
Rick Maxson says
An interesting point I forgot to mention: In the photograph, the door at street level is the entrance to the basement of the library. Like much of Eureka Springs, it has an “underground.” In the late 1800’s Eureka was buried by a mudslide and rebuilt, incorporating the underground. Supposedly there are secret tunnels from the library to Spring St.
Charity Singleton Craig says
What an interesting design, Rick. One of the articles I read said that many of the Carnegie libraries are built in the beaux arts style (French neoclassical), but your Eureka Springs building looks much more unique. I love the secret tunnels, too. You’re right — these old libraries are just loaded with mystery.
Sandra Heska King says
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/575475658608877067/
This is a photo of our Carnegie Library from a 1908 postcard. It was established in 1903 and still in use when we moved here–old creaky floors and a spiral staircase to the upstairs. I remember shushing my son all the time because of the echoes. Now the building houses a nail salon, florist and accountant. Our current library is nice, but I miss the old one.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Sandy – Thanks for sharing that picture. While I love it when old libraries can carry on in their original buildings, I have to admit that I’m also intrigued about the new life some of these buildings take on. As I said in the essay, I think Carnegie would approve of starting over.
L. L. Barkat says
As soon as I saw the pictures of these, I thought perhaps we used to have such a library right down the street. I’ve been sad about the fact that it no longer exists, and now I am just a touch sadder, because I looked up where NY Carnegie libraries were built and… indeed, ours was a Carnegie.
It was replaced by a Frank Lloyd Wright style building before my time here. And now the FLW one is gone in favor of something my older daughter says looks like it belongs in Florida. (It’s nice, but the lines seem all wrong for this old town).
I’ve never really understood why someone would tear down a building of such distinction. Though sometimes I know they repurposed the stones. Ours was built in 1911 for a cost of $26,000. Gosh. I pay about half that in property taxes, for less than 1/4 acre of land just up the street now.
I told my older daughter about this post and she loved the idea of what Carnegie did. I think she is now secretly dreaming of being rich only to give all her money to the building of beautiful libraries 😉
Now I am also wanting to know more about Carnegie!
Charity Singleton Craig says
LL – I could have written many posts about this topic, as Andrew Carnegie himself was quite a man. While he was a populist, as evidenced by his library grants, he also was a harsh businessman and was alleged to have joined forces with one of his plant managers to violently put down a worker strike. In my research, I found this from Carnegie biographer Les Standiford, author of Meet You in Hell:
“The Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 — in which he and Henry Clay Frick conspired to mercilessly beat down the steelworkers who were striking for better pay and better working conditions. It stands to this day as the worst labor conflict in American history,” Standiford says.
“Increase our wages,” the workers demanded. “What good is a book to a man who works 12 hours a day, six days a week?”
Nasaw says Carnegie thought he knew better and replied to his critics this way: “If I had raised your wages, you would have spent that money by buying a better cut of meat or more drink for your dinner. But what you needed, though you didn’t know it, was my libraries and concert halls. And that’s what I’m giving to you.”
So like all people in all times, he was a complicated man. But he created a legacy of generosity and philanthropy like few others, and for that I am grateful.
Charity Singleton Craig says
I meant to leave my source for those quotes above: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/01/207272849/how-andrew-carnegie-turned-his-fortune-into-a-library-legacy.
Sherry says
Thank you, Charity, for this article. I’m sure it was fun for all who read your words to run back through their childhood memory of walking into their hometown library. I still can recall the smells and sounds. I never read a book without inhaling that inky odor first. I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and couldn’t wait to see if mine was on the Carnegie list. The Dayton View library was, indeed, a Carnegie Library. It looks like it did when I walked there at age 10, a long walk but worth every step. I would spend hours looking and browsing and always had a hard time choosing. Thanks for the memories!
Now, I must check out the Carmel library!
Charity Singleton Craig says
Sherry – Thanks for your comment. I was hoping this post would bring back memories of old library experiences, especially since so many towns and cities had Carnegies. Glad you were able to travel back to your own library in Dayton.
Let me know how you like Woody’s!
Kelly Greer says
My husband introduced me to the Carnegie library in St. Louis City. It is stunning in architecture and welcoming in character. I could linger there for hours. My husband was invited to visit the locked rooms and shown the original blue prints. It is an experience he treasures. I googled Missouri and found that we have 33 Carnegie libraries in our state and 2 at universities. Thank you for sharing. I now have a new idea for our road trip adventures this year!
Charity Singleton Craig says
Kelly – I’ve actually heard from someone else in St. Louis about the Carnegie library there. It sounds like a real gem. And let me know if you end up going on that Carnegie library road trip. I’d love to hear more about it!