Beaux Art detailing.
Elegant façade
Amid historic neighbors, is large, but not odd
Come take a gander, absorb the detail
Of this Carnegie Library perched on Chisolm Trail.
TEXAS HISTORICAL MARKER:
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY BUILDING
Completed in 1904, this brick library building was funded by a personal contribution from the noted New York industrialist and benefactor Andrew S. Carnegie. Ben D. Lee, builder of the Bell County Courthouse, served as contractor. Designed by the firm of Smith and Moore and made of bricks from a local kiln, the structure features elaborate detailing of the Beaux Arts classical style. When the library opened in 1905, 1500 volumes were contributed by members of the Woman's Wednesday Club. Public library facilities were located here until 1975.
LINK
HISTORY
The Lena Armstrong Public Library has served the community of Belton since 1899. The Library has occupied four locations, been called by four names and employed five Head Librarians.
IN THE BEGINNING
The Library began as the Woman’s Wednesday Club Library located in a room in the Central Hotel owned by the Sanctificationists. This group, also known as the Women’s Commonwealth, was established in 1867 when Martha McWhirter had a religious conversion which led her “to live a celibate life dedicated to helping others”.
The group consisted mainly of women and their children, and as the first women’s movement in Central Texas , they offered shelter to women in abusive relationships. The group also owned and operated the Central Hotel which brought economic growth to the community of Belton.
This first Library was filled with books donated by the members of the Woman’s Wednesday Club.
EXPANSION
When the books threatened to overrun the room in the hotel, space was rented in the Harris & Walker building on Main Street.
Miss Emma A. Lee was hired as the Librarian and the Library was open in the afternoons. The members of the Wednesday Club began to pursue the notion of having a Carnegie Library and began a persistent letter writing campaign to Andrew Carnegie, who wrote a personnel check for $10,000.
In 1905, the Carnegie Library opened at 201 North Main Street and Miss Lee moved in with 1,500 books. The Library would stay in the Carnegie building for 70 years. In 1975 the Library moved to a new building at 301 East 1st Avenue and became the Belton Public Library.
BUILDING A LEGACY
Miss Lee, the first Head Librarian retired in 1924 and Miss Loulie C. Meyer became the Librarian of the Carnegie Library.
In 1933, the Library became part of the City government, and Miss Meyer was appointed Librarian. In 1946, Miss Meyer retired and Miss Lena Armstrong became the Librarian. Miss Armstrong would serve the Library for the next 52 years.
During her tenure, Miss Armstrong built an impressive genealogy collection and compiled a large collection of family and local history. She was also a contributing author for The Story of Bell County, collected over 3,300 photos of Central Texas, and was an avid collector of local fossils.
Miss Armstrong helped many children learn to read and appreciate the Library. She encouraged children of all races and status to use the Library and be comfortable there at a time when this was not a popular notion.
HONORING DEDICATION
In In December of 1998, Miss Armstrong retired. For her service to the community and because of the deep love and respect the people of Belton had for her, the Library was renamed the Lena Armstrong Public Library in December of 1998. Miss Armstrong died in January of 1999.
In May of 1999, the Library celebrated its 100th anniversary. Kim Adele Kroll was appointed Librarian in October of 2000.
Currently the Library has 24,000 items including 2,814 genealogy texts. The Library still maintains and adds to Lena Armstrong’s files on Belton and Bell County, as well as family histories.
Carnegie Library of Belton, TX
by John Troesser
Beautifully restored in 1991, this building was constructed in 1904 at a cost of $10,000. On the ground floor the lighter rectangles in the wood flooring show where the bookshelves once were. The spacious upstairs has a stage (a common feature of Carnegie Libraries; usually rented out for public events for as much as $3.00 per night,) which in Belton was sometimes used for public immunizations as well as plays.
The museum is the home of the "Ma" Ferguson Collection, which you can see by her photo, is definitely not a fashion line. "Ma" was the first woman to be Governor of Texas and was a Bell County native.
The upstairs also houses a collection of scale models of the Bell County Courthouse (as it was) and other notable buildings in the Bell county/Temple area.
An interesting story from a museum staff member:
According to local legend, the citizens of Belton were so persistent in writing to Mr. Carnegie himself and not the corporation, that in order to free up his mailbox, Mr. Carnegie wrote a personal check for the amount of construction. Years later when a remodeling grant was requested the Carnegie Corporation had no record of an initial grant.
The best DETAILED history on the building comes from its listing on the National Historic Register Ref #: 85000473 Architect: Smith & Moore; Lee,Ben D.
Please refer to this Waymark or check out the
Texas Historical Atlas (search Bell County) for the full descriptive text.
Meanwhile, here are the opening and closing paragraphs:
Located opposite the Old Post Office a block north of the Courthouse Square, the Carnegie Public Library is a good example of early 20th-century Beaux-Arts influenced public buildings. The structure is in good condition, in part because few alterations were made over the years, and also because of a recent restoration. The Carnegie Public Library is a rectangular, twostory, masonry structure with shallow hipped roof. Raised slightly on a base of cast stone, the building has loadbearing exterior walls of structural clay tile and an exterior of buff brick laid in common-bond pattern.
After the construction of a new public library several years ago, the Carnegie Library was designated the Bell County Museum. A gradual restoration program has resulted in the removal of later additions and modifications, and the building now looks much as it did upon completion in 1904. Of more than thirty Carnegie Libraries once found in Texas, only a dozen remain. The Belton Carnegie Library is one of the most intact and opulent of these few survivors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON FILE IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER
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But wait! There's More!
ABOUT CARNEGIE LIBRARIES
Carnegie Libraries in Texas: (wikipedia)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carnegie_libraries_in_Texas
and... just for coolness sake: http://www.texasescapes.com/FEATURES/Carnegie_Libraries/Penny_Postcard/penny_postcard.htm
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY AND THE PENNY POSTCARD
by John Troesser
Recording the wonders of the new century, it’s hard to imagine the number of people who collected these photographs of history. It’s also hard to imagine an era of two and three digit phone numbers and twice-daily mail delivery. The scribbled messages also reveal their popularity: "Couldn’t find one of the Denton Courthouse, hope this will do."
"Here’s one from Beaumont, you now owe me two." The simple message "Please return favor", with nothing else except the address, shows that the sender was replying to a newspaper ad for an exchange of "views" from a distant city. So affordable and available, stores would notify customers by post ("Dear Miss, your dress is ready.") A street address wasn’t necessary in a town where everyone knew your name (and your business). I once owned several letters addressed to Captain Ira Stover, New York City.
After Courthouses and City Halls, Carnegie Libraries were the most photographed buildings from this period, although it was nearly a three-way tie with asylums and sanitariums. (Where people were thought to go when they read too much.) In the twenties, all three lead categories were swept aside by Hotel postcards, possibly because they were free in the lobby and there’s always the desire to show off to the folks back home that you always stay in a hotel with indoor plumbing, even if it’s just for the novelty of it.
Even today, most postcard dealers maintain a separate category for Carnegie Libraries. While every town had a City Hall, however humble, and every county seat a Courthouse, a library especially a Carnegie Library was a source of civic pride. Carnegie Libraries had to be applied for, which means at least one member of the community could write. Courthouses merely proved that your town had lawyers.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE!!!
Museum, Register, historical markers
This waymark opportunity drives Feng Shui folk starkers
So do click ‘nearest’ before logging’s over
For here, waymark wise, you are rolling in clover.
TARGET RICH HARDLY BEGINS TO DESCRIBE THIS AREA.
[Look around, you may well find something to waymark yourself -- but definitely don't miss the Texas themed 'medallions' on side of the building kitty corner from here.]