Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries of Connecticut
There are only 11--perhaps 12 depending on how you stretch the definition--Carnegie buildings in this New England state. New England Carnegies, the excellent web site begun by Corinne H. Smith, is my primary reference.
Derby Neck
Designed by Henry Killam Murphy. The Carnegie attribution is on the visible portion of the frieze.
Still in use. 1906 grant: opened in 1907; additions in 1972 and 2002.
Valentine-Souvenir card, mailed in 1917. It's in dreadful condition, but it's the only specimen I have found.
Enfield
Now known as the Pearl Street Library in the Town of Enfield. It recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The card is captioned as Library, Thompsonville, Conn. Thompsonville was a mill village in the Town of Enfield, so the Tichnor Bros. weren't totally inaccurate.
New Haven
Davenport, Dixwell, and Fair Haven are the three Carnegie-funded branches of the New Haven Library. Only the 1916 building below is still in use.
Fair Haven Branch
Carnegie grant, 1913.
One of several library postcards sent to noted Grand Rapids, Michigan, librarian Helen Barstow. The sender chose a glossy finish card by Joseph Gans ,shortly after the building was built.
Norwalk
1901 grant: opened in 1903. Wikipedia calls the architecture 'Elizabethan.'
Remodeled in 1982 and still in use.
'Library Green, Norwalk, Conn.'
The Library, in end view, is on the left side of the A. Kleban card.
South Norwalk
At its founding, Norwalk and South Norwalk were separate communities. This is no longer accurate, giving Norwalk the rare claim of two Carnegie buildings in a community of less than 100,000 people.
The building was renovated in 1950 and 2005-6.
The Valentine-Souvenir card was mailed in 1914.
Thomaston
Also posted on the public library page, as Andrew Carnegie pitched in $1,700 in 1906 to bail out the library building from debt. The building had been built in 1900-1901 by Griggs and Hunt. The Library puts forth a convincing argument for the Carnegie involvement.
It was replaced by a 7,000 square foot building in 1971. Oddly, the two library buildings were connected rather than demolishing the old.
G.A. Lemmon card.
West Haven
1906 grant: opened in 1909; additions in 1960 and 2002. I am mildly surprised this survived the trend during the US boom years to demolish instead of renovate.
Danziger & Berman card, published in New Haven.
