A framed roster of Sullivan County men who served in the Civil War hangs on the north wall of the Merom Public Library.
Just as it has for the past 94 years.
The wooden vestibule at the entrance also stands unchanged since Sept. 1, 1918 — the day the building opened in this tiny town on the Wabash River. Most of the tables, chairs and bookcases are original, too.
The only hint of the passing of a century lies in the basement. Now dim and used for book storage, the stone-walled bottom room was once used for town meetings and voting in elections. Today, kids in Merom scurry in the basement door to get a quick drink from the water fountain inside.
All of those activities would probably please Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-American steel tycoon and philanthropist who paid for the construction of the Merom Public Library, and 1,688 others across the United States between 1889 and 1929. “It’s more than books. He wanted [the libraries] to be a feature of the town,” said Merom branch librarian Paula Adler, “and this building has served that purpose.”
As National Library Week begins today, the precise number of Carnegie libraries still in existence is not known. In the 1996 book, “Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy,” author Theodore Jones counted 772 functioning as libraries. Another 350 Carnegies had begun second and third lives as community centers or school annexes. Nearly 1 in 6 had been demolished by 1996, the book reported.
The fact that the Wabash Valley is home to six surviving Carnegie libraries is no fluke. Carnegie funded more libraries in Indiana than in any other state — either 165 or 164, depending which source of information is used.
Neighboring Illinois received the third-most Carnegies, at 105. Today, those century-old public libraries still operate in the Indiana towns of Brazil (opened in 1904), Sullivan (1905), Clinton (1911), Rockville (1916) and Merom (1918), and in the Edgar County, Ill., town of Paris (1904). Most have undergone additions to add space and accommodate disabled patrons, as required by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
Those alterations are subtle and typically do not obscure the original architecture.
“When you look at a Carnegie, you know it’s a Carnegie,” said Cindy Hein, director of the Rockville Public Library. “It’s got a unique style.”
Yet all are different, as well. Carnegie never pushed any particular architectural style. His foundation simply considered applications for grants from towns all over America, and dispensed a funding amount he considered appropriate to the selected communities. The designs were left to the citizens. Still, those styles tend to reflect tastes of the early 20th century, and of particular regions.
Original pieces remain
The striking dome atop the Sullivan Public Library resembles Carnegies in the Illinois towns of Paxton and Greenville, because all three were crafted by the same architect, Paul O. Moratz. At Sullivan, the dome structural format creates distinct round rooms on the upper and lower floors. As with other Indiana and Illinois libraries, the Sullivan Carnegie includes a fireplace.
“It was utilized, back in the day, for heat,” said Donna Adams, who oversees the genealogy and local history collection at Sullivan.
Like most Wabash Valley Carnegies, a framed portrait of Carnegie adorns a wall at Sullivan. A few contain permanent mentions of Carnegie as the benefactor of the structure. The Brazil Public Library facade sports an engraved “C” in its stone. A foundation stone at Clinton is etched with the words, “Gift of Andrew Carnegie 1909.” (That was the year Clinton received its grant.) Otherwise, the elements of the libraries vary from place to place.
Floors in the original portions of the Carnegies creak. That happened as Adams ascended the staircase from lower to upper floor at Sullivan, and walked past an old card catalog cabinet, a relic in the digital 21st century. It still has the metal hooks on each long drawer, designed to hold rows and rows of cards with the title, author and the Dewey Decimal System codes for each book. Sullivan’s collections are all logged into computer databases, as are those at most libraries. The card catalog cabinet now stores a file of the library’s patrons.
The old-school files are dear to the librarians’ hearts, though.
“When I go in a library and see a card catalog, I just want to hug it,” Adams said.
Such an embraceable amenity exists in the Paris library, where children’s books are organized into a card catalog. “We may have one of the few card catalogs still around,” said Paris librarian Teresa Pennington.
That structure also utilizes radiant steam heat. Like Sullivan, Paris’ Carnegie includes a now-retired fireplace. Its eye-catching design features tall windows throughout the library, and massive glass panes fielding sunlight around the entrance. “The windows are huge and lovely. It’s one of the features about the building I love best,” said Pennington, who’s served as librarian for 29 years.
Parking around the Paris library is limited, but much of its clientele arrives from the surrounding neighborhoods. Many patrons trek on foot or by bicycle, said Michelle Frost, Paris’ associate librarian. Free library cards are available to anyone who resides or owns property in the city of Paris.
Free access a goal
Free access to learning for the common man was a primary goal of Carnegie’s landmark library project. In fact, the phrase “Free To The People” is etched on the outside of the Carnegie library in Brazil.
As a poor, young, immigrant boy in Allegheny City, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Carnegie saw a prominent local man, Col. James Anderson, open his personal library to boys in the area. In 1852, Anderson created a broader library, free for use by trade apprentices, explained Glenn Walsh, a Carnegie historian from Pittsburgh. But Andrew, not an apprentice, could not use the facility, and wrote a letter of protest to the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Anderson soon changed the rule.
“At that point, Andrew Carnegie learned the power of the pen,” Walsh said.
Once Carnegie amassed a fortune through his Carnegie Steel Co. (which he later sold to fellow industrialist J.P. Morgan for nearly $500 million in 1901), he turned toward philanthropy and the library initiative. Of course, Carnegie’s generosity remains a historical controversy. The treatment of workers by a man known as a “robber baron” colors his legacy. “Andrew Carnegie was a very complex man,” Walsh said.
Carnegie’s grandfather was “pro-labor,” Walsh pointed out, and Carnegie considered himself to be supportive of workers, too. Yet, many of his own steel workers put in such long, exhausting hours that they had no energy or time to visit the libraries he began building.
Nonetheless, without his coast-to-coast push, many tiny communities and blue-collar cities would have gone library-less for decades.
“If it hadn’t been for Andrew Carnegie, it would’ve been another half-century before towns would get a public library,” Walsh said.
Karen Walker can’t imagine Clinton without one.
“It’s part of our American democracy tradition of free information and learning for all,” said Walker, director at the Clinton Public Library for the past 11 years.
That library has nurtured a bond with kids in Clinton Township, its service base, and the nearby South Vermillion schools. Youngsters flow in after school, walking or riding bikes, skateboards or scooters, said Judy Karanovich, Clinton’s young adult librarian. The growing popularity of young-adult-oriented books, such as the “Hunger Games” trilogy, has adults scanning the shelves in Karanovich’s section.
“We’ll have a grandma in here, looking for a book, and have high-schoolers and middle-schoolers in the same aisle,” Karanovich said. “That’s something you wouldn’t expect to see.”
The libraries’ endurance from generation to generation is exemplified by their building materials — primarily stone and brick.
Little has changed at Merom, which is believed to be the smallest community in America still served by a Carnegie library. The town’s population dwindled to 228 in the 2010 Census from 294 in the 2000 count. Adler, a graduate of the University of Southern Indiana, has been one of those residents her entire life. Despite the shrinking numbers, kids keep the library busy.
“After school, we get bombarded with children,” she said.
The objective set out by Carnegie when he donated $10,000 for that Merom library, and hundreds of others, was to keep those kids learning into adulthood.
Standing beside the front doors of the Carnegie in Paris, Pennington said, “The library is an educational institution, just like a school, except we don’t stop at the 12th grade.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Features
Related Photos
-
Still relevant: Patrons of the Paris library read in one of the building's front rooms one Monday morning. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis)
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Let's meet: A room on the lower floor of the Paris Library is used as a meeting room. Here Cathy Smith of the Clark/Edgar Human Resources Center talks with Amy Packer from the State of Illinois. The old fireplace stands to the side, with radiant heat from the gas fire boiler coming down from above.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis The way we were: Several photographs from years gone by hang in the Paris library. This one shows what the front desk/checkout counter looked like.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Benefactor: A portrait of Andrew Carnegie hangs in a room of the Paris library.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis 1904: A limestone block over the front door shows the year of construction of the Carnegie library in Paris.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Well used: Paris library director Teresa Pennington said use of the facility is about evenly divided between computer users and those interested in the books.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Nice touch: There are several stained glass panes in the ceiling of the lobby of the Paris Carnegie Library. Some of the Carnegie libraries have a domed roof, while others have been given different unique features.
-
Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Welcome: The Carnegie Library in Paris is on South Main street, just south of the town square.
Discussion
'Free … learning for all'
Original goal was to provide public with free access to information
- Features
-
-
Banks of the Wabash Festival kicks off
The 2013 Banks of the Wabash Festival, scheduled May 23 through June 1 in Fairbanks Park, celebrates 40 years along the banks of the Wabash River, 30 under the sponsorship of the Terre Haute Parks and Recreation Department.
-
Community Theatre concludes season with ‘Social Security’
Community Theatre of Terre Haute’s main stage season finale opens this Friday, with the hit Broadway comedy “Social Security,” directed by Sonni Crawford.
-
Bruce’s History Lessons: Morse’s telegraph and its impact as a ‘game changer’
This week (May 24) in 1844, Professor Samuel F.B. Morse sat in the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., surrounded by members of Congress, who had come to witness history.
-
Singer-songwriter Aly Tadros to perform at The Verve
Although she calls Brooklyn, N.Y., home, singer/songwriter Aly Tadros has spent the last decade traveling (and touring) across Egypt, Turkey, Canada, Mexico and nearly all of Europe in an attempt to coalesce the diversity that is being both Egyptian and Texan, both a performer and a songwriter. Next on her list is Terre Haute. Tadros will be playing at The Verve on Friday.
-
Longtime weatherman Jesse Walker relates well to people of Wabash Valley
While in middle and high school, Jesse Walker developed a strong interest in the weather. He thought about a career at the National Weather Service or at a storm prediction center, but the idea of becoming a television meteorologist never entered his mind.
-
CULINARY COURSES: Clabber Girl Classroom Kitchen provides variety of cooking courses for the Valley
There are a few taste-bud-tantalizing-perks for having America’s leading baking powder producer in your backyard. For nearly 120 years, Clabber Girl has been a staple in Terre Haute. In 1899, Hulman and Company began offering up what was to become one of the oldest brands in the country, Clabber baking powder. In 1923, the company changed the baking powder brand name to Clabber Girl.
-
RIVER OF SOUND: Composer sees symphony bring his musical imagination to life
David Watkins smiled as he stood on the Tilson Auditorium stage. The audience stood, too, applauding.
Two of his compositions had just been performed by the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Neither piece — “A Wabash Portrait” and “River Fanfare” — had been played publicly in decades. -
The Beauties of Spring: Stunning array of wildflowers bloom each spring in Collett Park
Groundskeepers put off the first mowing of Collett Park each spring.
Admirers of the place, Terre Haute’s oldest park, like it that way.
A stunning array of wildflowers covers the 21-acre lawn for a few short weeks. Those plants, known as “spring beauties,” emerge in March, bloom in April and go dormant by May, when the brilliant waves of white and pink flowers disappear. -
Day spent with daughter inspires Valley man to write children’s book for her
It started with a warm sunny blackberry picking outing, a bee buzzing, a little bird nest with eggs in it and a little girl begging her daddy for a night-time story. And from those ingredients the children’s book, “The Bee in the Blackberry Bush” came to fruition.
-
From kilts to haggis, Wabash Valley Scottish Society marks a decade of preserving heritage
As soon as Richard Cooper breaks into his Scottish accent, a smile automatically follows.
It happened last week as he recited a work of legendary Scotland poet Robert Burns. -
Witness to history: April movie chronicles Jackie Robinson’s trials as be breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier — something Vigo County native Harry Taylor witnessed first hand
The upcoming movie “42” aims to show America what Jackie Robinson endured.
Harry Taylor witnessed it firsthand.
Robinson wore jersey No. 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Taylor wore 41. Both were 28-year-old rookies, considerably older than most. Taylor got delayed by military service in World War II. Professional baseball’s unwritten but ironclad code of racial discrimination had kept Robinson and other African-Americans out of the majors since the 1880s. -
Sisterly Habits: Fillenwarth sisters are linked together in more than one sense
The Fillenwarth sisters are sisters in more than one sense of the word.
Both were born two of the eight children of city cop Henry and his wife Catherine Fillenwarth. Both grew up among a large and giving Catholic extended family in inner-city Indianapolis in the 1940s. -
Geocaching Indiana: Clay County man develops idea to use geo-art to create outline of state in caches
Indiana, long-known as the Crossroads of America, has for years been a destination for people coming from around the world to witness such activities as the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, Indianapolis Colts football games and Indiana University Hoosiers basketball games.
Since October 2012, Indiana’s attractions have come to include the surprising geo-art creation of a group of Wabash Valley geocachers — people who use Global Positioning Systems and similar location-sensitive devices to find hidden objects for fun. -
Voice of a Storyteller: Chance meeting of Twain, Paris youngster inspired narrative voice of Huck Finn
The block offers no hints of its place in American literary history.
Customers dodge raindrops, walking in and out of an auto parts store. -
Pearls of the Wabash: Efforts to reintroduce mussels
Broken bricks, shattered large clay tiles and thin strips of lumber nailed into a crimped piece of sheet metal, sit piled down a county road in Hillsdale.
-
Natural Habitat: Meet 17-year-old Ben Cvengros, who has a knack for capturing wildlife — in particular, birds — on his camera
I would like to introduce you to a 17-year-old Parke County teenager who has an incredible level of patience. Ben Cvengros was 12 years old when he found his passion for photography.
-
WORD PLAY: Scrabble Club broadens Greene County youngsters’ vocabularies and experiences in a fun way
Drew Helton nodded his head like a wise college professor dispensing scholarly advice.
-
Doing a lot with a little: Family’s resourcefulness leads it to reuse vegetable oil as fuel
Up a winding driveway, tucked off a main road in Clay County, sits an average-looking house in a hardwood forest. The homeowners, Chris and Lori Hart, are two resourceful people.
-
Coming full circle: Vigo County 4-H’er hopes donation of livestock auction money helps youth
The phrase “giving back” is often quoted but sometimes lacks personal follow through.
-
CRUISIN’ TO A CAREER IN MUSIC: Terre Haute native Will Foraker on a roll with new album, job as cruise ship entertainer
On his way to the Panama Canal, Will Foraker sounded energized.
-
YOUR GREEN VALLEY: Keep your garden — and yourself — safe from lead
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead poisoning is the No. 1 preventable environmental cause of illness in children.
-
TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: Need something for the kids? Try these Ritzy Cookies
When we have dinners at the church, one of the ladies brings these cookies. Nancy Kahl has been making these for some time now. They are so good. Need something for your kids? Make sure that there isn’t any one who can’t have peanuts. These are so easy and extra good.
-
‘A Song for Indiana’ to raise money for Dresser sculpture
Art Spaces will present “A Song for Indiana – The Paul Dresser Project” at 5:30 p.m. on June 6 at the Holiday Inn of Terre Haute.
-
Sign up for Community School of the Arts classes
Summer is the perfect time to enroll children and teens in theater and visual arts and music classes at the Indiana State University Community School of the Arts.
-
FAMILY TIES: While searching for my grandfather, I found my mother
I remember the afternoon my mother received the chilling news from her nephew that her oldest sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a car/bus collision.
-
GRAPE SENSE: Same old whites getting you down? Try something different
If the same old Chardonnay, Riesling or Pinot Grigio is getting you down, try something different.
-
TRIED ‘N’ TRUE: A Rhubarb Nut Bread for the season
Last fall we went to the Covered Bridge Festival. Gene loves to go. Anyway, I got to talking to this lady, Treva Smith, at Bridgeton.
-
Diamond Hill Station goes bold in ‘Katy Bar the Door’ album
On the second track of Diamond Hill Station’s new CD, the band deftly rambles through a catchy, love-gone-wrong song called “Same Old Thing.”
-
Roxie Randle takes next step with single ‘Everything I’m Not’
The next step for singer-songwriter Roxie Randle is a single with the attitude and power to crack radio airplay lists.
-
Opening reception Friday for ‘Mud Musings’
Indiana State University’s Community School of the Arts is scheduled to host an opening reception for an art exhibition from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday in the Gallery Lounge of ISU’s Hulman Memorial Student Union.
- More Features Headlines
-
Raw: Utah Teen Arrested in Death of His Brothers
Boy Scouts Decision "First Step" Say Activists
Raw: Heckler Interrupts Obama on Guantanamo
Raw: Jurors Deadlock on Jodi Arias Penalty
Obama Offers Drone Strike Defense
Sheriff: No Sign Killing of 2 Kids Was Planned
Johnson: Don't Blame Islam or UK Policy
Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse
Boy Scouts Mom Supports Gay Inclusiveness
Closer Look at Okla. School Where Children Died
Raw: Scuffles in London After Hacking Death
A Slice of Apple History Up for Grabs
Raw: 80-Year-Old Climbs Mount Everest
Chain-Reaction School Bus Crash Injures About 50
Wash. State Man Arrested Following Ricin Scare
Two Suspects in Murder Known to London Police
Obama Defends Drone Strikes, With Limits
Britain Attack Believed Linked to Radical Islam
Oklahoma Family Reflects on Lost Son
Boy Scouts Approve Plan to Accept Gay Boys
AK-47-wielding thug may be the most bumbling crook ever
Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage
Trout's cycle a boost for Angels
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
Kim Kardashian Flaunts Pregnant Bikini Body in Greece
NBA star pledges $1M to help tornado recovery
Shakira's Shocking Talent
Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air
GRAPHIC: Blood-Soaked Machete Killer Caught on Tape
Elin Nordegren Furious With Lindsey Vonn For Parading Kids in Public
Camera Captures Climber As He Loses Grip And Falls
Helen Mirren Meets with Dying Boy in Queen Elizabeth's Place
Crowd Chants '¡Si, Se Puede!' After Passage of Immigration Bill
DWTS Crowns a Winner
Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff
Demi Moore a Rocks Bikini at Harry Morton's Family House
Anthony Weiner: I'm running for New York City mayor
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
