Lakewood Public Library, Lakewood, Ohio
Posted by: 
boatchick
N 41° 29.062 W 081° 48.263
17T E 432847 N 4592840
Very little of the original Carnegie building shows through at the Lakewood Public Library.
Waymark Code: WM3Z6K
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 06/09/2008
Views: 47
In the 1910’s, the rapidly-growing city of Lakewood, Ohio, sought to establish a public library. The Board of Education obtained a Carnegie grant for the building, and nearly $10,000 in donations was collected to purchase a lot on Detroit Avenue at Arthur Avenue. In 1916, the one-story, 11,000 square foot limestone library building was opened. Like the Carnegie West branch of the Cleveland library, this building was designed by Edward Tilton, a New York architect perhaps best known for his Immigration Station at Ellis Island.
Only a few years later, the library was crowded. In 1921, a branch library was established on Madison Avenue. Then, the main building was expanded in 1924. An 11,000 square foot addition in the rear of the building doubled the floor space of the original library. In 1956, and addition to the front of the building added another 15,000 square feet. Various renovations and smaller additions through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s modernized and enlarged the library to 55,000 square feet by the turn of the century; then, in June of 2008, a 38,000 square foot expansion was completed. Today’s Lakewood library is two stories tall and stretches from Arthur Avenue to Mars Avenue along Detroit. The original section is on the west side of today’s building.