Winchester Community Library, Winchester, Indiana - Carnegie Library Buildings on Waymarking.com

The Winchester Carnegie Library was built in 1915. In Carnegie Libraries Across America by Theodore Jones, the grant date (from the Carnegie Corporation archives) is listed as 1906 and the grant amount as $12,000. There are no resources readily available to indicate that this information is in error, but neither do they explain the long delay between grant and building. A Google search at the time of the creation of this waymark did not turn up an official website for the Winchester library; however, by November of 2009, the library had created a home page. The staff at the library were very accommodating in sharing some of the history of the building.

According to the cornerstone, the Winchester library was built in 1915. The members of the Board of Education and of the Library Board are listed on the cornerstone. The librarian I talked to indicated that, for some period of time, the Board of Education was in charge of the administration of the library, while at other times, a Library Board ran the operations. The library had an upper floor for the adult sections and for a small office, and a basement area that housed the children's section and a small meeting room. The main entrance of the original building faces North East Street and has a tile foyer leading to stairs up to the main section. A small side entrance, confusingly located on East North Street, led to the basement. For some time "years back", Kindergarten classes were held in the Carnegie Library in Winchester.

In the 1990s, the Winchester library had outgrown the building. A new addition was built on the lot to the west, or the rear of the original building. Today, the old section and new section are connected by a large glass lobby. The original exterior back wall of the Carnegie Building has been maintained. The upper floor of the old library is now the Carnegie Meeting Room and is rented out for group functions. Also, the Friends of the Library store their book sale books on the original 1915 shelves in this section. The basement is used for storage, the boiler room, and the maintenance office. The new section of the library has incorporates some of the stylistic elements of the original building, like the square limestone accents in the brickwork and the iconic arched windows that appear in the library's logo.

References:
Jones, Theodore: Carnegie Libraries Across America
Staff of the Winchester Community Library

Address of Library Building: 125 North East Street Winchester, Indiana USA 47394 Current Use of Building: library Year Built (optional): 1915 Website about building: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
To log a waymark in this category:

1. Please provide at least one photograph of the building. Additional photographs are encouraged.

2. Describe your experience.

No additional visit instructions will be added for individual waymarks. Additional instructions will result in waymark being declined.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.