Detroit Public Library, Lothrop Branch; Detroit, Michigan
Posted by: 
boatchick
N 42° 20.665 W 083° 06.488
17T E 326350 N 4690169
A $750,000 Carnegie grant to the Detroit Public Library provided funds for the Main Library and eight branches. The Lothrop branch is currently vacant.
Waymark Code: WM62AM
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 03/21/2009
Views: 5
The Detroit Public Library was established in 1865 with a five thousand volume collection stored in a room at Capitol High School. A dedicated library was built at Centre Park in 1875. As the city of Detroit grew and the library collection got bigger, the Centre Park location was expanded and several branch libraries were built. A 1901 Carnegie grant provided $750,000 for the construction of a new main library and eight branches. Of that grant, Carnegie required that at least half the amount be dedicated to the branches. Detroit accepted the grant in 1910, and the libraries were built from then until the Main library was completed in 1921.
Parnassus on Main Street, the history of the Detroit Library, notes that the early branch libraries were designated by numbers before acquiring their names. Branch number nine was called the George V. N. Lothrop branch, after the seventh Attorney General of the State of Michigan. The Lothrop branch was built in 1911-12 and was opened on 21 December 1912. Designed by architect B. C. Wetzel, the library had a reading room, reference room, children’s room, reading porch and 100 seat auditorium on the main floor. The mezzanine was home to a club room, “rest room”, and gallery. The Lothrop branch is no longer used as a library and sits in disrepair with windows broken and entrance boarded up.
References:
Jones, Theodore: Carnegie Libraries Across America
Woodford, Arthur B.: Parnassus on Main Street
Detroit Public Library
Detroit Public Library branches, 1914