Paulding County Carnegie Library
Encyclopedia
The Paulding County Carnegie Library is a historic Carnegie library
in the village of Paulding
, Ohio
, United States
. Constructed in the early twentieth century, it is a simple building that has served as the core of Paulding County
's library
system since its construction, and it has been designated a historic site
.
subscribed money to establish a small collection in 1893. Ten years later, multiple groups of local citizens met to organize a public library
, which began with a collection of six hundred books. In its earliest years, the library had no fixed home: it itinerated among downtown storefronts and different homes, including the house of the librarian herself.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the construction of public libraries was proceeding rapidly, due in part to the generosity of steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie
. Many large and small cities, such as the Ohio communities of Columbus
and East Liverpool
, constructed libraries with money donated by Carnegie, but none had been built in small villages such as Paulding. Nevertheless, local residents worked to secure money from Carnegie, and their efforts succeeded where all before them had failed: his grant provided for the establishment of a library to serve the entirety of Paulding County. Built with this donation, the Paulding County Carnegie Library was the first Carnegie library to serve an entire county instead of a single city.
The process of obtaining the money for the library and constructing the building with the resulting funds occupied approximately three years, beginning in 1912 and concluding in 1914. Since its completion, the library has never been significantly modified, and it remains a significant part of the community. Located on South Main Street near downtown, the library remains one of Paulding's most important community buildings and a center of local pride.
, published a set of guidelines that he saw as ideal for library architecture. Since three years previously, he had required libraries to submit plans for his approval before releasing money, due to what he saw as overly ornate designs being built with his employer's money. The Paulding County Carnegie Library is one of the best examples of Bertram's guidelines: instead of ornate entryways and runaway detailing, its design maximizes the amount of space devoted to the interior, and the floor plan
is designed for maximum efficiency. The library board chose a design submitted by a Columbus company, Howard and Merriam, which had already produced the design for the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
.
Howard and Merriam chose a design built primarily with brick walls and elements of stone. Although the main floor is elevated above ground level, the building is a single-story
structure; its full basement
is elevated partially above the surface of the ground. The brickwork is primarily built in a French fashion; the gray bricks are matched by details of similarly-colored limestone
from Bedford, Indiana
. Patrons enter the library by climbing a stairway with a stone balustrade
to a central entrance that sits within a stone archway; small Palladian windows
with stone pediment
s are placed on each side of the entrance. Among the details visible on the building's exterior are pilaster
s on all of its corners, string courses
that parallel the lintels
, multiple cartouche
s, and an elaborate cornice
. Inside, the library features six rooms: three large book rooms, a vestibule
, a lobby, and an office. The design of the interior includes elements such as marble
in the vestibule, oak panels and decorations in the reading rooms, fireplaces, and Tuscan
pilasters. Although its architecture is restrained, the library remains a fine example of Neoclassical architecture
with a Beaux-Arts influence.
, qualifying because of its historically significant architecture and its place in local history. Most important to its place in local history was its role as the first county-level Carnegie library: its establishment prompted many other small communities to apply for library grants from the Carnegie Corporation
, making it an example of the spread of the self-improvement and adult education movements to rural areas in the early twentieth century. Today, the library is one of four Paulding County historic sites on the National Register, along with the nearby Paulding County Courthouse
, the former train station
in Antwerp
, and a round barn near Paulding.
The Paulding County Carnegie Library is the center of the Paulding County library system, which also operates branches in the villages of Antwerp, Oakwood
, and Payne
.
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...
in the village of Paulding
Paulding, Ohio
Paulding is a village in and the county seat of Paulding County, Ohio, United States. It is located predominantly in Paulding Township. The population was 3,595 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Constructed in the early twentieth century, it is a simple building that has served as the core of Paulding County
Paulding County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,293 people, 7,773 households, and 5,689 families residing in the county. The population density was 49 people per square mile . There were 8,478 housing units at an average density of 20 per square mile...
's library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
system since its construction, and it has been designated a historic site
Historic site
A historic site is an official location where pieces of political, military or social history have been preserved. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have recognized with the official national historic site status...
.
History
As late as the 1890s, Paulding lacked a library of any sort. Finding this situation undesirable, members of a local women's clubWomen's club
Women’s clubs, also known as woman's clubs, first arose in the United States during the post-Civil War period, in both the North and the South. As a result of increased leisure time due to modern household advances, middle-class women had more time to engage in intellectual pursuits...
subscribed money to establish a small collection in 1893. Ten years later, multiple groups of local citizens met to organize a public library
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
, which began with a collection of six hundred books. In its earliest years, the library had no fixed home: it itinerated among downtown storefronts and different homes, including the house of the librarian herself.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the construction of public libraries was proceeding rapidly, due in part to the generosity of steel tycoon 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...
. Many large and small cities, such as the Ohio communities of Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
and East Liverpool
East Liverpool, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,089 people, 5,261 households, and 3,424 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,010.3 people per square mile . There were 5,743 housing units at an average density of 1,320.8 per square mile...
, constructed libraries with money donated by Carnegie, but none had been built in small villages such as Paulding. Nevertheless, local residents worked to secure money from Carnegie, and their efforts succeeded where all before them had failed: his grant provided for the establishment of a library to serve the entirety of Paulding County. Built with this donation, the Paulding County Carnegie Library was the first Carnegie library to serve an entire county instead of a single city.
The process of obtaining the money for the library and constructing the building with the resulting funds occupied approximately three years, beginning in 1912 and concluding in 1914. Since its completion, the library has never been significantly modified, and it remains a significant part of the community. Located on South Main Street near downtown, the library remains one of Paulding's most important community buildings and a center of local pride.
Architecture
In 1911, Andrew Carnegie's private secretary, James BertramJames Bertram (Carnegie secretary)
James Bertram was the personal secretary of Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist and philanthropist, from 1897-1914. Bertram also served the Carnegie Corporation of New York from its inception in 1911 as secretary and trustee until his death in 1934...
, published a set of guidelines that he saw as ideal for library architecture. Since three years previously, he had required libraries to submit plans for his approval before releasing money, due to what he saw as overly ornate designs being built with his employer's money. The Paulding County Carnegie Library is one of the best examples of Bertram's guidelines: instead of ornate entryways and runaway detailing, its design maximizes the amount of space devoted to the interior, and the floor plan
Floor plan
In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan, or floorplan, is a diagram, usually to scale, showing a view from above of the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at one level of a structure....
is designed for maximum efficiency. The library board chose a design submitted by a Columbus company, Howard and Merriam, which had already produced the design for the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is a complex comprising several buildings related to the life and presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Located in Fremont, Ohio, the center comprises the Rutherford B. Hayes Museum and Library and Spiegel Grove, an estate encompassing the Hayes home,...
.
Howard and Merriam chose a design built primarily with brick walls and elements of stone. Although the main floor is elevated above ground level, the building is a single-story
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
structure; its full basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
is elevated partially above the surface of the ground. The brickwork is primarily built in a French fashion; the gray bricks are matched by details of similarly-colored limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
from Bedford, Indiana
Bedford, Indiana
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,768 people, 6,054 households, and 3,644 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,157.1 people per square mile . There were 6,618 housing units at an average density of 556.2 per square mile...
. Patrons enter the library by climbing a stairway with a stone balustrade
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
to a central entrance that sits within a stone archway; small Palladian windows
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
with stone pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s are placed on each side of the entrance. Among the details visible on the building's exterior are pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s on all of its corners, string courses
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
that parallel the lintels
Post and lintel
Post and lintel, or in contemporary usage Post and beam, is a simple construction method using a lintel, header, or architrave as the horizontal member over a building void supported at its ends by two vertical columns, pillars, or posts...
, multiple cartouche
Cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an ellipse with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh...
s, and an elaborate cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
. Inside, the library features six rooms: three large book rooms, a vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
, a lobby, and an office. The design of the interior includes elements such as marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
in the vestibule, oak panels and decorations in the reading rooms, fireplaces, and Tuscan
Tuscan order
Among canon of classical orders of classical architecture, the Tuscan order's place is due to the influence of the Italian Sebastiano Serlio, who meticulously described the five orders including a "Tuscan order", "the solidest and least ornate", in his fourth book of Regole generalii di...
pilasters. Although its architecture is restrained, the library remains a fine example of Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
with a Beaux-Arts influence.
Historic designation
In 1983, the Paulding County Carnegie Library was listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational 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...
, qualifying because of its historically significant architecture and its place in local history. Most important to its place in local history was its role as the first county-level Carnegie library: its establishment prompted many other small communities to apply for library grants from the Carnegie Corporation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...
, making it an example of the spread of the self-improvement and adult education movements to rural areas in the early twentieth century. Today, the library is one of four Paulding County historic sites on the National Register, along with the nearby Paulding County Courthouse
Paulding County Courthouse (Ohio)
The Paulding County Courthouse is a historic governmental building in downtown Paulding, Ohio, United States. A Richardsonian Romanesque building erected in 1886, it is the third courthouse to serve the residents of Paulding County....
, the former train station
Antwerp Norfolk and Western Depot
The Antwerp Norfolk and Western Depot is a historic former train station in the village of Antwerp in the far western portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Built in 1880 by the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway, it is a primarily wooden structure with weatherboarded walls...
in Antwerp
Antwerp, Ohio
Antwerp is a village in Paulding County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River. The population was 1,740 at the 2000 census.Antwerp is the nearest village to the Six Mile Reservoir, the site of the Reservoir War in 1887. Antwerp is the birthplace of Asa Long, the English draughts player...
, and a round barn near Paulding.
The Paulding County Carnegie Library is the center of the Paulding County library system, which also operates branches in the villages of Antwerp, Oakwood
Oakwood, Paulding County, Ohio
Oakwood is a village in Paulding County, Ohio, United States. The population was 607 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Oakwood is located at ....
, and Payne
Payne, Ohio
Payne is a village in Paulding County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,166 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Payne is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land....
.