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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  

EMPORIA

EARLY LIBRARY HISTORY
 
A subscription library was established December 14, 1869, with dues set at $3.00 for men and $2.00 for women, and has been "in operation continuously" since that time as a public library. Tax support began in 1884.
 
Photo: Carnegie Library in Emporia Kansas

 
THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY
 
In 1901, Mrs. Amanda Wicks, the librarian, upon return from a visit to Detroit, where she had seen the new Carnegie library, encouraged the mayor and city council of Emporia to apply to Andrew Carnegie for funds. On April 26, 1902, Carnegie offered $20,000.00 for a buildng, an amount later increased to $22,000.00. After a controversy which lasted a year concerning the location of the new library, two lots on the northwest corner of Sixth and Market Streets, offered by Mrs. Preston B. Plumb, wife of the U.S. Senator, were accepted as the site.
 
The building was designed by Van Brunt and Howe, a prominent Kansas City architectural firm. The contract was given to Morse Construction Co. The building was completed October 16, 1905, and formally dedicated Feb. 22, 1906.
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING
 
The one-and-a-half story building is rectangular in plan and constructed of red brick on a raised stone foundation. The asymmetrical south facade and the east and west end walls are topped by stepped parapets that mask the lower roof line. Bay windows on both sides of the doorway are surmounted by battlements. The double wooden entrance doors and stone portal form a miter arch opening, elements of a style known as Jacobethan Revival. There is a terra cotta wall ornament above the entrance in the gable, which is also crowned by a finial. Some of the windows are made of leaded, beveled glass.
 
LATER LIBRARY HISTORY
 
By 1958, the library board desired a new facility but decided to remodel the basement of the original building instead. On April 6, 1971, voters soundly defeated a $1,775,000 bond issue for a new library, but on Aug. 3, 1976, a $1,250,000 bond issue was approved by a vote of two to one. The new building, erected during the administration of the present director, is located just west of the old Carnegie building on East Main. It was completed in 1979.
 
The library has 79,000 volumes and serves a population of 25,300 in Emporia and also provides service to the residents of Lyon County through a contractual agreement with the county commissioners. 310,400 items were circulated in 1984. The 1985 budget is $321,000.00. The library is a member of the North Central Kansas Library System and has a "Friends of the Library" group.