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  Table of Contents about Andrew Carnegie About Allen Gardiner, author of The Carnegie Legacy in Kansas Further information about Libraries featured in this book Carnegie Legacy in Kansas logo: Link that takes you to the home page  

PLAINVILLE

EARLY LIBRARY HISTORY
 
The women of the Women's Christian Temperance Union started a library in 1901, with shares being sold at $10.00 per year. The library opened May 24, 1902, in a room in the G.A.R. Hall. In 1910 the library was reorganized.
 
Carnegie Library: Plainville, Kansas

 
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY
 
The library board and women of the Priscilla Art Club conceived the idea of applying for a Carnegie grant. On February 20, 1911, the Carnegie Corporation offered $5,000.00 for a library building. C.S. Cochran, a Plainville philanthropist, gave lots at First and Jefferson Streets for the site in August, 1911.
 
A building committee was established in March, 1911, and the members began looking at the plans of the libraries at nearby Stockton and Hays. Three sets of plans had to be forwarded to Andrew Carnegie before one was secured which Carnegie would accept. The architect is unknown. The contract was let to Jacobs and Wise, of Hays, for $4,976.00 on November 11, 1911. The property of the city library was transfered to the new Carnegie library in August, 1912, and Miss Florence Ackerman was re-employed as librarian. The library was opened to the public in October, 1912.
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING
 
The building was rectangular, 28' x 42', one story high on a raised basement. The exterior was of brick and cut stone, with a galvanized cornice and metal columns. The first story was built of pressed brick and the basement of paving brick. The window plan was that of double windows surmounted by an arch; the door at the main entrance was also surmounted by an arch and was equal in height to the windows on either side.
 
LATER LIBRARY HISTORY
 
The building served as the library until 1985 when a new library was dedicated. On February 20, 1979, James and Mary Donovan donated a quarter-section of land, along with its royalties, to the city for use in building a library. A stipulation was that if the land, appraised at $70,000.00, wasn't used in five years it would revert back to their estate. Nearing the end of that time the library board decided to drill for oil. Sixteen companies donated their services to get a well drilled, and on January 27, 1984, they struck oil. Shares were sold on the venture which raised $158,000.00 for the library fund; in all, $275,000.00 was raised for the library. A Plainville Monopoly game earned almost $4,000.00, and several individual benefactors also gave money for a new building. The new library, which cost approximately $254,000.00, was dedicated May 25, 1985.