Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Public Libraries of New Mexico
Alamogordo
Still in use, with several of its windows blocked, and with an addition. This was really a pretty building at one point.
According to this strangely punctuated F.J. Schaaf card, the city's first library was built in 1898. This iteration came in 1958.
Albuquerque
(L) Bedraggled hand-colored card for Fred Harvey.
(R) Unattributed glossy card, also in poor condition.
This was actually a subscription library (I have hesitated to include this library form on my site.), replaced in 1923.
Served into the 1970s as the Main Library, and now houses the Library's special collections.
The 1925 Curt Teich postcard must have been produced shortly after the library building opened.
This Petley chrome postcard, mailed in 1963, shows a large addition to the library.
Carlsbad
Caption:
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Library and Museum, Carlsbad, New Mexico
1937 Curt Teich linen finish postcard.
This building has retained its museum function.
Caption:
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Municipal Library and Museum
This building is still in use as a municipal library.
Clayton
A WPA project, this building served as Clayton's public library from 1939, but has been replaced. It has been considered endangered.
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Photo postcard, producer unknown.
Colmor
Colmor is a true ghost town. Most of the information comes from the blog of Diana Weir.
The Colmar Scorosis (spelling as on postcard reverse) Club's eight members obtained a boxcar for its library, paneled it, installed heat, and obtained over a thousand books in 1929. The death of Mrs. Nora F. Dow in 1950 began the decline of the library; and Colmor was abandoned by 1956.
According to commenter Joseph Caldwell, his family bought the boxcar and its contents, and moved it to the family's yard. It was in use by the Caldwells into the 1980s, and its collection passed to the Springer Library. The boxcar, alas, has crumbled into dust.
Deming
Replaced in 1972 by the Marshall Memorial Library. Fate unknown.
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Small adobe building on a lot which would have barely contained needed wings.
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Mailed in 1949. Possibly an L.L. Cook product.
Las Cruces (Thomas Brannigan Memorial Library)
Replaced 1979. Fate unknown.
Another F.J. Schaaf postcard.
Los Alamos
Combo library and post office. Formed in 1943 as a subscription library; became the Mesa Library in 1945. It seems to be in better digs today.
Curt Teich chrome postcard from 1958.
Tucumcari
Believe it or not, this is a renovated (1971) post office. Currently, it bears one of the longest library names outside Indiana:
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Tucumcari Public Library in Memory of Kenneth Schlientz
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This is a continental-size postcard. I have cropped the deckle edge from the scan. Its photo was taken by Lou Candelaria.
