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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  

CHERRYVALE

EARLY LIBRARY HISTORY
 
In the autumn of 1908, Mrs. Revila Newton asked all the women who had been members of the Chautauqua Study Club, along with other guests, to formulate plans for a study club. In the autumn of 1909, this group was organized into a club and it was decided to open a reading room and library. In 1910, the name of this new club, the Cherryvale Woman's Club, was changed to the Woman's Library Club. A book shower was held and the nucleus of a library was obtained in this way. The club's primary interest was in obtaining a Carnegie library grant. An election was held April 8, 1912, and the voters approved support of the library.
 
Carnegie Library: Cherryvale, Kansas

 
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY
 
The Carnegie Corporation offered $10,000.00 for a library building on April 30, 1912. A site on the southwest corner of the intersection of East Main and Watkins was found desirable. On September 13, 1912, the library board agreed to pay $1,500.00 for lots 7 and 8 of Block 39. Title was acquired Nov. 16, 1912.
 
The library was designed by George P. Washburn & Son, architects, of Ottawa. Caddo Construction Company was the contractor. The contract to Caddo was in the amount of $7,569.20, and the total cost of the building was $9,096.20. The building was completed July 2, 1913, and was formally opened September 19, 1913.
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING
 
The library is rectangular, one story on a raised basement. The exterior is of red brick with stone trim. The porch above the main entrance on the north side is supported by two stone columns. Above the door is a leaded-glass transom.
 
LATER LIBRARY HISTORY
 
At the April 3, 1956, election, voters downed efforts to levy two mills for repair of the building, but an $8,000.00 bond issue for an addition to the library passed on April 7, 1959. The building now has 1,926 square feet. A valuable collection of 500 books was given to the library by John Marquis Smith, who spent his school days in Cherryvale, and later went on to careers in the Navy, the Library of Congress, and the Commerce Department. He died unex- pectedly at the age of 42 in 1962.
 
The book collection presently numbers nearly 4,000 volumes, and the library serves a population of 2,800. 21,500 items were circulated in 1984. The 1985 budget is $17,700. The library is a member of the Southeast Kansas Library System.