Carnegie Library (Atlanta)
The Carnegie Library was the main branch of the Atlanta Public Library in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Located at the intersection of Forsyth Street and Carnegie Way, the two-story building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Ackerman & Ross. It was the first public library in Atlanta and was a Carnegie library, built with funds donated by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was demolished in 1977 to make way for Marcel Breuer's Atlanta Central Library, located on the same site.
Plans for a central public library in Atlanta were devised following a $145,000 donation from the businessman Andrew Carnegie. The Carnegie Library building opened on March 4, 1902, as the first building of the APL. The building experienced chronic overcrowding issues from the 1920s onward, and it was expanded southward in 1935. The Carnegie Library building was completely renovated in 1950 and again underwent modifications in 1966. The building was proposed for replacement by the 1960s, and Breuer was hired to devise plans for the new branch, construction of which was delayed. The Carnegie Library building was torn down in 1977 to make way for Breuer's building; parts of the Carnegie structure have been preserved.
The building was two stories high, with a slightly raised basement and a rectangular floor plan. The white marble facade was divided vertically into bays, each flanked by columns; the bays contained windows and carvings. The interiors were arranged around a central corridor and staircase. The basement originally contained the children's room, the first floor was used for reading and deliveries, and the second floor had administrative offices and a lecture room. Four floors of stacks were connected by two book lifts.
History
The Fulton County Library System is descended from the Young Men's Library Association, a subscription library system established in 1867. The YMLA occupied several locations before moving to Marietta Street in 1892. A central public library for Atlanta was suggested in 1897 by Walter M. Kelly, a member of the YMLA's board who argued that the YMLA could not serve Atlanta's growing population. Kelly, a regional manager for the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, had become involved with the YMLA following a request from the association's president Eugene M. Mitchell, the father of writer Margaret Mitchell. In turn, Kelly convinced Carnegie to donate money for a public library in Atlanta. At the time, Carnegie had donated various Carnegie libraries to other American cities.Development
Founding and Carnegie gifts
In February 1899, Carnegie offered Atlanta's government $100,000 for a public library, on the condition that the city government pay for annual maintenance. The Atlanta City Council accepted the gift the next month, and the city government allocated $5,000 annually for maintenance. The YMLA donated its assets to the city for the proposed public library that April, and a board of trustees was established. The library system was formally established on May 6, 1899; the trustees named it the "Carnegie Library of Atlanta" in recognition of Carnegie's gift. The trustees debated where to place the library building, which delayed construction for several months. Ultimately, in September, they sold the YMLA's Marietta Street building and signed a leaseback agreement with the new owners, allowing the collection to remain in the YMLA building for two years.The trustees bought a new site at the corner of Forsyth and Church streets, the latter of which was renamed Carnegie Way. This site, costing $35,000, consisted of two buildings that spanned a combined. Afterward, the trustees launched an architectural design competition in late 1899, with J. H. Dinwiddie as the supervising architect; they invited nine architects and firms to submit plans. Carnegie also donated an additional $25,000 for the library. The New York–based firm Ackerman & Ross won the competition that December, proposing a two-story marble building with a hipped roof. The trustees gave monetary prizes to the runners-up, Willis F. Denny and Walter T. Downing, who both drew Italian Renaissance designs. Carnegie gave a third and final gift of $20,000 in early 1901; this brought his total donation to $145,000.
Construction
After Ackerman & Ross completed their drawings in early 1900, and the library trustees awarded the building's construction contract that May to the local firm Miles & Bradt for $113,680. The formal groundbreaking ceremony took place on May 15, 1900, and plans for the building were filed with the Atlanta government two days later. When construction began, the collection had 15,000 volumes from the YMHA, which one publication claimed was "only sufficient to fill one corner of" the building. By the middle of that year, the project employed forty workers on average. A cornerstone-laying ceremony for the building took place on September 29; the cornerstone contained a time capsule with newspaper articles, documents, and other artifacts relating to the library. The sculptor Philip Martiny was hired to design the decorations on the Carnegie Library building's facade.The trustees awarded contracts for the building's stacks and furniture in February 1901, but construction was delayed due to challenges in obtaining white marble that was not stained with dark veins. The planned opening was delayed multiple times. The contractors began paying a daily penalty after missing an initial deadline of April 1, and the City Council threatened to withdraw its $5,000 annual appropriation. That September, the library system moved its collection into the building's basement, as the stacks and furniture on the upper stories had not yet been installed. At the time, the collection had 20,000 volumes, and the library had received donations from various historical societies and private connections. A stained glass window was installed the next month. In January 1902, the contractors turned over the basement to the library trustees. The trustees initially rejected the two above-ground stories because of poor workmanship; the floor surfaces were replaced, causing further delays.
In conjunction with the opening of the Carnegie Library building, four apprentices were hired to prepare the collection for public use. Books were placed on shelves during late February 1902, and the building opened on March 4, 1902. Only the stacks and children's room in the basement were completed upon opening; patrons had to use a rear entrance, and a temporary book-delivery room was set up in the basement. The library gained 1,000 cardholders within three days of the building's opening and 7,000 in its first month. The building was ultimately completed on May 29, 1902; the structure cost $125,000 in total, while the furniture cost $20,000. Miles & Bradt sued the library trustees in October 1902 over unpaid bills relating to the building's construction, but a city judge ruled against them.
Usage
The APL's central branch was housed in the Carnegie Library building for most of the century, although only a small part of the original design remained intact over the years. It was the APL's only location until the first branch opened in 1909, and the system itself was also formally known as the Carnegie Library of Atlanta until 1949. Due to racial segregation, the building initially served only white patrons; the Auburn Avenue Library, which was built later in 1921, served Atlanta's black residents. In its early years, the Carnegie Library building hosted notable guests such as Carnegie, Chinese diplomat Wu Ting-fang, and authors including Henry Seidel Canby, Frank Swinnerton, and Richard Halliburton. Over time, the city's annual appropriation for the library increased as the APL opened more branches.1900s to 1920s
The APL's first main librarian, Anne Wallace, proposed in 1903 that an adjacent lot be converted to a small park for the library. The next year, a periodical reading room opened on the building's first floor, and a bust of Carnegie was dedicated in the building. Wallace also began hiring librarian apprentices, who worked at the Carnegie Library before moving on to other institutions. In 1905, she requested additional money from Carnegie for the establishment of a librarians' training school. Originally known as the Southern Library School, the training school opened at the Carnegie Library building that September; it later became the Carnegie Library Training School of Atlanta. By 1907, the library had 40,000 volumes, and the building had begun hosting programs for blind patrons. The building's facade was first cleaned in 1911, and the APL also proposed book-delivery stations across Atlanta to reduce the need for patrons to visit the Central Library.The central branch had 60,000 volumes by the early 1910s, a figure that grew to nearly 84,000 later that decade. The Central Library remained the APL's busiest branch in the early 1920s, with roughly two-thirds of the system's circulation. Upon the system's 25th anniversary, in November 1924, the architectural firm of Hentz, Reid & Adler drew up plans for a third story. APL librarian Tommie Dora Barker endorsed the expansion, which did not occur. The APL again wanted to expand the Carnegie Library building by mid-1928, and a city councilmember proposed $190,000 for a new third story and a southward annex through a bond issue. G. Lloyd Preacher drew up sketches for the 1928 proposal. By then, the Carnegie Library building was significantly over capacity, with 100,000 books and archives of 240 magazines and 38 newspapers. There was no space in the building for the Carnegie Library Training School to expand, jeopardizing that institution's eligibility for grants, and parts of the collection were moved to the closed stacks or to branch libraries. Some reading-room tables also had to be removed due to the space constraints.