Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries of Massachusetts
Cities A-L
The majority of Massachusetts' Carnegie library buildings is still in use, a rarity in the US. Carnegie Libraries of Massachusetts For the libraries I have tagged as Carnegie libraries, New England Carnegies, Corinne H. Smith's web page, is the reference.
Ashland
Built after a 1903 Carnegie grant. Remodeled in 2005. Service hours cut back to a tragic minimum in 2006. The library's web page is part of the city's website.
W.G. Whittemore card.
Athol
Built in 1918, this Carnegie library is still in use, and has an impressive addition in the works.
(R) Collotype postcard.
Identified with the help of Librarian Deb Blanchard and historian J.R. Greene.
I had thought that this was a suffragette parade, but it turns out that this commemorated a Homecoming parade for returning Athol servicemen.
The RPPC has no identifying features at all.
Brockton
Founded in 1867.
Received two Carnegie grants, at least one in 1910.
Dedicated in 1913: renovated in 2003.
Curt Teich 'Photochrom,' printed for the dime store chain Woolworth.
Mailed in 1914.
Chelsea
Replaced Chelsea's Fitz Patrick Library, lost with all its contents in a 1908 city fire.
Still in use.
Unattributed card, possibly by Curt Teich.
Clinton (Bigelow Free Library)
(L) Curt Teich 'Photo-Finish' card from 1940.
(R) Curt Teich 'Photochrom' card from 1915.
Erastus Brigham Bigelow was the first library benefactor.
The Carnegie grant dates from 1901, and the building has some curious features, including glass floors in its stack area. (The public library in Oshkosh, WI and the old Agriculture Library at University of Illinois are other known examples.) The Library history page also speaks to its arched ceiling on the main floor, which was built by the Guastavino masonry method, also used in the Boston Public Library building.
Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard Island
YorKolor card dates from between 1942 and 1962.
1902 Carnegie grant.
Mr. Carnegie didn't ask for his name to be emblazoned over the entrance to the library, or inscribed on a plaque inside. But one of his favorite symbols was the rising sun, which expressed his belief that the public library embodied the dawn of knowledge.
Stolen verbatim from the Library's history page.
Still in use after three expansions. 6,842 square feet of space is not very much in this century.
Holliston
1903 Carnegie grant. Smith shows photos of the library with its unfortunate addition. There have been more graceful ways to make a Classical Revival Type A building ADA-compliant.
Card mailed in 1923.
Hudson
1903 grant: opened in 1905. Still in use.
Evidently there was an issue with money, because the building as originally completed (and as shown) lacked the second storey originally planned. It was finally added in 1929, and a second addition in 1967.
Quality card printed in Germany, and mailed in 1908.
Lee
Late 1903 Carnegie grant. According to the Library's history page, it's the last remaining Carnegie building in the Berkshires. How many there were to begin with, I know not. This looks to be the 'standard plan,' but the dome is more like a New England cupola.
An interesting picture on the library's site is a shot of the marble quarry that furnished both the original marble and the stone for the 1977 addition.
The Curt Teich card dates from 1928, and was mailed in 1943.
Leominster
Another Christmas gift: a December 24, 1906 grant. It's still in use. According to Wikipedia, its architects were Hartwell, Richardson & Driver.
The Curt Teich card was mailed in 1925.
