Library Ladies - Everett, WA - Civil Rights Memorials on Waymarking.com

The plaque says, "A New Century

It was a festive day during an optimistic time when Everett's Carnegie Library opened Saturday, July 1, 1905. Everett's initial boom of 1892 had halted during a national depression, but by 1900, times were good again. Industry lined Everett's waterfronts. Fine business buildings expanded the downtown area. New residences, churches, parks, and schools were turning Everett into a modern city.

From 1900 to 1915, the city's population tripled, with many immigrants arriving, hoping for a new start in a place that offered the potential for prosperity.

For those who attended the library opening, it was a day of pride and optimism. Planning the Carnegie Library was led by Woman's Book Club volunteers who cooperated and coordinated the effort with the business community and city government.

Planning was made possible by a $25,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. The new library was one of Everett's few public buildings, and it was an architectural gem that offered free library services and served as both a community meeting place and social hub of activity.

Library Ladies

Despite severe economic hard times, a group of women worked to create Everett's first library and ultimately founded the Carnegie Library. The Woman's Book Club, founded in 1894, began advocating for a public library. First gathering in private homes, and later in the original Hotel Monte Cristo, the women collected 1,000 books. Many were donated by other clubs across the country who received heartfelt letters of request from members.

The books were kept in a club member's house until library space was made available in the city hall, where the library officially opened on April 21, 1898. Sharing space with the fire department and city jail frequently interrupted patrons with fire department bells and alarms sounding in the stables below the library space. At times the line for the librarian's desk would intersect with the line for police bookings. Only a few years later, the library moved into a tiny building of its own at 2804 Rockefeller Avenue.

Dreams for a first-class public library became reality when Everett's Carnegie library opened in 1905 where the Woman's Book Club claimed a permanent meeting room and had an important influence on society. Members lobbied in Olympia for bookmobiles, public kindergarten, and women's suffrage. The same group of women were behind the founding of Everett's first hospital, and the library followed this victory. After they had seen to the physical health of the community, they wanted to provide for its intellectual health. Some historians believe it was a member of the book club who was responsible for securing the Carnegie Library Foundation Grant.

The Woman's Book Club founded the state of Washington's first bookmobile - one of the first in the country. Officially named Pegasus, but endearingly called Peggy, the bookmobile had a regular route that served schools and mills. In 1994, the North Everett Rotary Cub acquired Peggy and began restoring efforts. In her beginning, Peggy was a symbol of Everett moving in a new direction, from frontier town to industrial urban center.

Library Legacy

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was born into a hard-working but impoverished family in Scotland. When he was 13, his family immigrated to the United States. Carnegie soon had a Job changing spools of thread in a cotton mill, where he worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and earned $1.20 a week.

As a young man, Carnegie invested in industry, founded the world's largest steel manufacturer, and at 64 years old, was considered the richest man in the world. During the remainder of his life, he donated $350 million to creating and supporting libraries, universities, and organizations that supported learning, arts, culture, ethics, and world peace. Carnegie said, "A man who dies rich, dies disgraced." He believed strongly in using wealth to improve the world for the benefit of everyone.

The Everett Carnegie Library was one of 2,509 library buildings established worldwide with Carnegie financial grants. The Carnegie library grants paid for design and construction costs while requiring civic support for library operations and maintenance.

"A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. it is a never failing spring in the desert, "Carnegie said. He belied that there was no work more important than helping to educate others and that free public libraries were critical to a strong nation.

Forty-four Carnegie library were built in Washington State from 1901 through 1916. Many of the buildings have been repurposes, and some were demolished. Including this Carnegie library building, 30 are on the Washington State National Register of Historic Places".

Civil Right Type: Gender Equality (includes women's suffrage)

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