My other blog, carnegielibrariesjourney.blogspot.com documents my journey of visiting and photographing as many Carnegie Libraries as possible. I decided that I should share this aspect of my full time RVing lifestyle with you.
photo courtesy of Yamhill County Historical Society.
Designed by German-American architect Ernst Kroner and built at 225 NW Adams Street in 1912 with a $10,000 grant by Andrew Carnegie. I visited July 27, 2010. The library underwent major remodeling in the 1980’s.
From the front there is very little evidence that this Carnegie Library dates back 100 years. 
When I walked around to the back there it was--the 1912 library! Quite a contrast from the rather plain front entrance to the rear where the library still has original brick and windows. 
Original windows and brickwork. 
I’m wondering if the present-day rear door may have originally been the front door. 
Original stained glass windows over both the front and rear doors. I got a much more clear photo from inside the library than the one I took outside. Wish I’d done that on the front door! 
It’s possible that the front door of the new addition was designed around this old window. 
After I took pictures outside I went in to see what remained of the old library and didn’t find much. The librarian told me that this original upstairs fireplace upstairs had been hidden and discovered when they removed drywall during a recent renovation. 
If you ever travel to McMinnville, Oregon to visit the old Carnegie, you may also wish to take in another “little” attraction: Howard Hughes’ HUGE Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. The museum was built to house the Spruce Goose but includes everything from a Wright Brothers replica to a spacecraft. 
I can't remember for sure where hubby & I traveled and visited a Carnegie Library that had been completely ensconced/preserved within a larger newer facility. It was an architectural wonder to us! I just cannot for the LIFE of me remember where it was.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen you for awhile. Hello! You are still traveling I see.
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things about the McMinnville Carnegie Library is that it was designed in the Prairie style of architecture, after Frank Lloyd Wright. Very unusual for a Carnegie library to follow such a model! Usually they're rigidly neoclassical. The North Portland (Oregon) Carnegie Library is also quite unique and wonderfully remodeled. It is designed in the Jacobean style. And the former Albina Carnegie Library, also in Portland, and now the Title Wave Bookstore, is in Spanish colonial revival with wonderful ceramic tile trim and a red tile roof.
ReplyDelete