The Ballard Carnegie Library, also known until 1963 as the Seattle Public Library – Ballard Branch, is a historic library in the Ballard

Ballard, Seattle, Washington

Ballard is a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of Seattle, Washington. To the north it is bounded by Crown Hill, ; to the east by Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont ; to the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal; and to the west by Puget Sound’s Shilshole Bay. The neighborhood’s...

 neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. The library was predated by a freeholders' library in the 1860s, which eventually gave way to a reading room that was organized and funded by a women's' group in 1901. With a grant for $15,000, among other funds, a new library for the then independent City of Ballard was created as a Carnegie library

Carnegie library

A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems...

. The building, located at 2026 N.W. Market Street in downtown Ballard, opened to the public on June 24, 1904. Notable as the first major branch of the Seattle public library system, after Seattle annexed the City of Ballard into itself in 1907, and for employing one of the first African American librarians in Seattle, the Ballard Carnegie Library was in service until 1963, when a newer and more modern facility replaced it. After its sale, the old library building housed a variety of private commercial enterprises, including an antique shop, a restaurant and a kilt

Kilt

The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...

 manufacturer.

After being nominated in 1976 for the recognition by Seattle architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Larry E. Johnson, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 (NRHP) in 1979 (ID #79002535).

History

In the late 1860s, when Ballard was a new settlement along the edge of Salmon Bay

Salmon Bay

Salmon Bay is that part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal--which passes through the city of Seattle, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound--that lies west of the Fremont Cut. It is the westernmost section of the canal, and empties into Shilshole Bay, which is part of Puget Sound. Because of the...

, a homesteader named Ira Wilcox Utter helped create a freeholders' library. Later, in 1901, the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Ballard began raising money with fairs and socials for a new reading room on Ballard Avenue; it moved and expanded several times to different locations. Having decided to build a proper library, the Ballard City Council established a library board in 1903 and the city applied to the philanthropist

Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...

 for a library grant to help underwrite the costs of construction of a new library. The library was built on a lot of 100 feet (30.5 m) square, which was purchased for $2,100 raised by local businesses and citizens, supported by the earlier fundraising and book collections of the women's union, and a $15,000 grant from Carnegie. When construction was completed, the building included features such as a 500-seat auditorium and a men's smoking room

Smoking room

A Smoking room is a room which is specifically provided and furnished for smoking, generally in buildings where smoking is otherwise prohibited....

, which was later converted into a reading room. Part of the construction work was executed by a chain gang

Chain gang

A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work, such as mining or timber collecting, as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include building roads, digging ditches or chipping stone...

.

Initially, the library had a cache of books waiting for the completion and grand opening that was provided by local residents and schools, as Carnegie's gift for the construction did not cover the initial costs of new books. A call was also put out for citizens to donate books to the new facility to expand the collection. In 1907, the Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library

The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been efforts to start a Seattle library as early as 1868. There are 26 branches in the system, most of them named after the neighborhoods in...

 took control of the Carnegie library, when Ballard was annexed by the neighboring City of Seattle government. Early Scandinavian immigrants to Ballard and the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

 in particular made use of the new facility; Ballard as an area has a strong historical presence of Scandinavian people. Early in the library's existence, it had a turnstile

Turnstile

A turnstile, also called a baffle gate, is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. It can also be made so as to enforce one-way traffic of people, and in addition, it can restrict passage only to people who insert a coin, a ticket, a pass, or similar...

 at the entrance to its book stacks, to count the number of book borrowers that passed through. With the arrival of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the Carnegie Library became home to various community activities, such as dispensing information on the war, and also provided Red Cross and English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 classes. In 1942, during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, one of the first African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 librarians in Seattle, Lucille Smith, was assigned to the Carnegie library.

In 1956, Seattle voters approved a municipal bond to replace what was by then considered the "inadequate and impractical" library. The Ballard Carnegie Library eventually was shut in 1963, when a new, larger public library was built in the area, and the Carnegie building became an antique store. One of the cited reasons for the closure and sale of the library building were expert claims that the building would never survive an earthquake (of which Seattle had numerous instances, both before and after 1963). The building has, in fact, survived several quakes since 1963.

The building today

The building is now owned by Karoline Morrison and her husband, Dennis Beals; As of April 2011, they are attempting to sell it, with an asking price of $3 million. They have expressed a hope of finding a buyer who will continue to preserve the building. The former library was home to Carnegie's, a French

French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

 restaurant from 2003 until 2010.

As of April 2010, the building is home to Ström and Ström Consulting, providing legal and marketing services to mental health professionals. As of March 2011, the building is also home to Root. Integrative Health, a holistic wellness center offering massage therapy, chiropractic, nutrition, mental health counseling, acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, and creative writing services. The area around Market Street in Ballard, where the library building is located, is one of the areas of Seattle that is quickly rising in land value, and has been compared to Belltown

Belltown, Seattle, Washington

Belltown is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, United States, in the 98121 Zip Code, located on the city's downtown waterfront, on land that was artificially flattened as part of a regrading project...

, a growing Seattle neighborhood that is affected by gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

. As the Carnegie Library building is without the City of Seattle's "City landmark status" despite its NRHP status, the structure is at risk from new development.