Love's Labours remain
In this house of brick and frame
I wonder if ghosts lurk
Enjoying bibliographic work
Itself of motes in sun
Immune to a clockwork run?
Very charming house with a history -- and a medallion & plaque!
Background:
Texas Escapes The Judge Stiehl House
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One of Texas’ early libraries was opened in a small fachwerk cottage that had been built in 1852 as a residence. Shaded by one of the area’s huge Live Oak trees – it remains in use today - to hold art meetings. Fachwerk buildings were once common in areas with healthy German populations, but as times changed – the style was abandoned.
Originally it was the home of Judge John C. Stiehl and family. Stiehl was the first German-born Fayette County Judge. As the initial Anglo settlers sold off their land to the newly-arrived Germans, the vacancies in public office were filled by men elected by the people they represented.
When the judge moved into housing more in tune with his office, he sold his house to the literary society for $700. The library was organized in 1888 and in 1902 it was officially “born.” The library’s very first volume was Robert Louis Stevenson’s St. Ives (one of his lesser-known efforts). The book's donor was mentioned only as “a doctor’s wife.”
The “Etaerio” Club formed in 1912. The Latin name means “companionship” The society took their motto from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost:
“Learning is but an adjunct to ourselves, and where we are learning is likewise.”
Despite their catchy motto, the Etaerio Club disbanded in 1938 but not before they had assembled 1,500 volumes. The first librarian was Miss Norma Willrich followed by Miss Minnie Crum and then Miss Agnes Robson.
The globe of the porch light attracts wasps each year.
The structure – an excellent example of what the neighborhoods must’ve looked like in the mid 1800s - got the attention of preservationists and the house was rebuilt in the late 1960s. The bricks were cleaned and all exterior boards replaced with weather-resistant redwood.
La Grange Footprints of Fayette Articles --The Old La Grange City Library by Carolyn Meiners
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A literary group intent upon studying William Shakespeare and his works was responsible for the start of a library in La Grange and later for the preservation of the building which served as the city library for 66 years. Organized in 1899, the "literary circle", as the ladies called themselves, met every two weeks with attendance dependent upon the weather.
In February 1902, the group proposed a circulating library under the supervision of the club, thus marking the actual birth of the city library. During that same month, the group joined the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs and adopted the name "Etaerio", meaning companionship. The club began meeting in the La Grange Opera House; an immense wooden structure erected in 1894 at the site now occupied by the La Grange City Hall.
The old Stiehl home at the corner of North Franklin and Fannin Streets was purchased by the club for $700 on May 23, 1912, after the ladies realized the need for a place to store the many volumes in its fast-growing club library. County Judge J.C. Stiehl built the little "fachwerk" structure with its handmade bricks and hand-hewn timbers, joined by wooden pegs, in 1852.
After being purchased by the club, the walls that divided the house, as well as the kitchen, were removed to provide the appropriate space for a library. An underground cistern was also filled in, but the renovations did not affect the overall outward appearance of the building.
Meetings of the Etaerio Club continued until 1938, when the property was transferred to the city of La Grange for use as a public library. The city received the building, property club furnishings and 1,500 volumes in a gift deed. Thereafter, the group ceased to function altogether due to a lack of interest.
Miss Norma Ulrich served as the first librarian, followed by Miss Minnie Crum, Miss Agnes Robson and Mrs. Mae Eldridge. In 1976, construction began on a new library, which was dedicated on April 20, 1978. In November 1984, the historic old library building became the home of the La Grange Fine Arts League. Now 150 years old, the little house still stands in the shade of majestic oak trees, a silent reminder of the past, a time when reading was the primary means of enlightenment, and genteel folk shared their love of learning in literary circles, a time when the books inside assuaged the hunger of locals for knowledge of the world outside. It has served its community well.
[photo]
Elizabeth L. Bowman (13 Dec 1914 - 8 Aug 2005) , a third-generation La Grange native, was working for the mayor when he needed to hire a librarian in 1938. Several other people applied, but Elizabeth was chosen. Pictured here in the old city library, she said she bound 2,000 books during her time there. She met her husband, Gilbert H. Cox, when he came into the library. They were married April 2, 1940.