Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries of Minnesota
Cities D - I
Detroit Lakes
One of the Seven Sisters Claude & Starck Carnegie libraries.
Two cards illustrate why you can't rely on linen finish cards for a totally accurate picture of a building. Still, it's a pretty good example of Prairie style. It should be, as a Claude & Starck design.
1911 Carnegie building. Currently a branch of Lake Agassiz Regional Library, as is Crookston.
Captioned as Public Library, Detroit - Minn. Bobinski lists a Detroit, Minnesota as a Carnegie grant recipient. Detroit was the 1877 community name.
Photo postcard mailed ca. 1914 from Brainerd to Detroit.
Duluth
Duluth received three Carnegie grants after 1899.
1901 grant: built in 1902. Replaced ca. 1980.
A rather pretty building bears some stylistic quirks, such as a tile roof coupled with Federal building details, including that dome.
Two beautiful pre-WWI postcards. Neither was postally used: both have divided backs.
(L) The Curt Teich 1910/11 card is unusual in that it bears a photo credit: Mc Kinzie.
Today, the building appears to be owned by a management firm whose stated goal was to restore the building (web site no longer online, and domain for sale). I have no independent confirmation of the intent.
The new building is rather scary looking. It has a Rorschach quality: I see an aerial hockey rink. Perhaps you see a ship's prow.
Eveleth
The Hockey Hall of Fame gets a much more prominent place on the city's website. In another gesture of disrespect, the library collection spent some time in Eveleth's high school.
1911 Carnegie grant, built in 1914, expanded in 1924. Still in use.
Architect William J. Sullivan designed more Carnegie buildings, along with the amazing Naniboujou Club Lodge.
(L) City Drug store ordered this Lithochrome card.
(R) Albertype Co. card.
Fairmont
Classic Revival, Type A plan.
1903 grant: demolished in 1968. Replaced by the Martin County Library, which incorporates some salvage from the Carnegie building of 1904.
This is yet another of those non-attributed (possibly Massure) cards with lurid, unnecessary tinting.
Fergus Falls
1905 Carnegie library building from a 1904 grant. Replaced, and demolished. It had two fireplaces to help dispel the chill.
All I know about the postcard is that it was printed in Germany, and assigned the number 2.
Glenwood
1907 grant: opened in 1908. Per Placeography, its architect was A.S. Foss, from Elbow Lake. Probably not the most challenging contract. The building is still in use.
(L) Photo postcard showing no signs of activity. Perhaps photographed pre-opening?
(R) Black and White brand card, also never mailed.
Graceville
Built by Ellerbe Architects with money from a 1913 Carnegie grant. This firm also designed Ortonville's Carnegie library.
It was demolished in 1999.
The photo postcard also features the town's Catholic church.
Grand Rapids
(L) Original facade of the Carnegie building, built from a 1905 grant.
It's featured on an early Auburn Postcard postcard.
(R) Photo postcard, slightly newer.
(L) Real photo, post-1938 WPA modernization.
The rest of the Carnegie building was engulfed between 1968 and 1971. After 2002, occupied by the Carnegie Business Center.
Hibbing
1906 grant. Demolished ca. 1953, with a sadly vacant lot and a historic marker all that remains.
Heather Jo Maki's Hibbing, Minnesota shows a fantastic interior view of the Carnegie building, and states that its murals were preserved and exist in various Hibbing buildings.
Despite the reverse of this scan, all we know is that it's a 'Glazed Lithochrome Style' card. Aubin took the photo, however, which is clearer than the photo card above.
Either the building is copyrighted, or the circled C above the entrance stands for Carnegie.
Hutchinson
1903 grant: still in use as a library. E.S. Stebbins was its architect, according to a WorldCat ArchiveGrid record.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
(L) Probably a Massure postcard; less gaudy than those of its ilk. Mailed in 1912.
(R) Blue sky genre done better, by E. C. Kropp.
