1900: Carnegie Library “an assured thing”

On July 5, 1900, the Light published a letter to W. W. Johnson, the city clerk, from the “private secretary” of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie:

Not only was a Carnegie-funded library “an assured thing,” but he had “instructed his cashier…to honor the drafts of the proper authorities of San Antonio in sums as needed from time to time for the library building, to the extent of $50,000” (about $1.3 million in today’s dollars).

According to a history of San Antonio’s public libraries on the city’s website, with the $50,000 from Andrew Carnegie and a land donation from Caroline Kampmann, “San Antonio’s first free public library was opened June 15, 1903 at 210 W. Market Street. This was the second library in the nation given by Carnegie and therefore was known as the Carnegie Library.” [The history includes a drawing of the library building.]

The history goes on to say that in exchange for the donation, Carnegie stipulated that the city “had to provide a suitable site, maintain the library free to the people, and have a minimum annual operating budget of $5,000. Finally, the building had to be designed so it could be lighted on all sides.”

Officials weren’t too sure if borrowers would be responsible with the books, so they had to deposit $2.00 or have a guarantor sign the library card.

An Express-News story in 2003 about the 100th anniversary of library system mentions that Carnegie donated another $20,000 for an addition “six years later.”

The 1921 flood damaged the foundation of the library and voters approved a bond in 1927 to replace it. The building was demolished in 1929 and a new library was built in its place. During construction, the library’s contents were stored in the basement of Municipal Auditorium.

“Between 1898 and 1917 Carnegie gave thirty-four gifts totaling $645,000 to various Texas communities. These donations were responsible for the construction of thirty-two public library buildings. Pittsburg, a mining town of fewer than 1,500 inhabitants, was the first Texas community to receive a Carnegie building grant.” Vernon was the last to build their Carnegie library.  (Handbook of Texas)

The Carnegie Corporation of New York says that Carnegie spent over $55 million funding 2,509 libraries in the English-speaking world, with 1,679 of them in the U.S. “…Carnegie had two main reasons for donating money to the founding of libraries. First, he believed that libraries added to the meritocratic nature of America. Anyone with the desire to learn could educate themselves and be successful in America like he had been. Second, Carnegie believed that immigrants like himself needed to acquire cultural knowledge of America which a library would enable immigrants to do.”

Libraries continue to fill these roles today. Of course, they’ve added computers and access to the internet and lots of other services to help them. Next time you think a public library is obsolete, visit one.

–Julie Domel

Julie Domel