Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
T.B. Scott Library
of
Merrill, Wisconsin
City Hall Years
In 1889, Thomas Blythe Scott offered to fund a public library. By 1891, a librarian was hired, and the first floor of the Merrill City Hall was dedicated for this purpose.
According to the Suhling & Koehn postcard's caption, this was also the Lincoln County Court House.
In 2010, when I visited Merrill, and took these photos, the building was being converted into the City Hall Apartments. Unfortunately, I was unable to enter the old city hall.
After funding came, by 1911, the Library departed these premises for the shiny new Claude & Starck building.
In 1909, a request for Carnegie funding was made.
Claude & Starck built similar libraries in Wisconsin, including the Carnegie building in Shawano.(no longer extant), Eager Free Library in Evansville, Barron Carnegie Library, Tomah Public Library (also a Carnegie building), and Clintonville Public Library (Extant, no longer a library facility).
E.A. Bishop postcard.
Unattributed photo postcard with letterset caption.
Card likely a Curt Teich product.
Another unattributed postcard.
E.A. Bishop postcard,
printed by Curt Teich
Dexter Press postcard, mailed in 1976, shows the first (1969) addition.
My 2010 postcard shows how the 2000 addition connects to the original construction.
Fry, Gillan, & Molinaro were the architects.
Corner view shows the American Terracotta Company frieze. Rochelle, IL's Flagg Township Library has similar decorative elements. It was also a Claude & Starck design.
Information came from the Library's web site, Celsus' Louis W. Claude - Prairie School Builder of Carnegie Libraries (Buildings), and the respective historical plaques photographed above.