Old Public Library - Victoria, BC
Posted by: 
hykesj
N 48° 25.559 W 123° 21.745
10U E 473188 N 5363711
This 1906 building, which served as Victoria’s public library into the 1980s, is pictured on a 1996 high value Canadian definitive postage stamp.
Waymark Code: WM16VKR
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 10/11/2022
Views: 8
Between the years 1883 and 1919, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, through his Carnegie Foundation, funded the construction of over 2500 library buildings. Most of these were in the United States and Great Britain but many can be found in all parts of the English-speaking world, including over 100 in Canada. In the early part of the twentieth century, the city of Victoria was awarded a grant for a Carnegie Library. Construction on the new building began in 1904 and it was opened to the public in 1906.
Designed by local architects Thomas Hooper and C. Elwood Watkins in a Richardsonian-Romanesque style, this building served as the main branch of Victoria’s public library for the next 75 years (a large addition was added in the rear in 1949). When the main branch of the public library was moved a few blocks away to a new facility on Broughton St., this building served as office space for a credit union, but now I see a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window.
In 1979, this building was added to Canada’s Register of Historic Places due to its contributions to early public education in Victoria and as a fine example of civic public works. The stamp, issued in 1996, was the sixth in Canada’s Architecture Series of high-value definitive postage stamps. I’m not sure why you would plant so many trees directly in front of an architecturally significant building, but they were not included in the computer-generated image used for the stamp.
Stamp Issuing Country: Canada
Date of Issue: 29-Feb-1996
Denomination: $5.00
Color: multicolored
Stamp Type: Single Stamp
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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