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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1999)
A2322 v.105:no.141 The He Battalion Aggielife Page 3 • Thursday, June 24, 1999 renovations W hat started almost a century ago as a way to clean up the streets and keep the youth of Bryan out of saloons lives on with the renovation of a building which holds great historical value to the Brazos Valley. The Carnegie Public Library was erected in 1903 in down town Bryan with direct funds from Andrew Carnegie. Clara Mounce, the commu nity librarian in Bryan, said in the early 1900s, there were few things for the youth of Bryan to do but visit the saloons.be cause the town lacked refine ment and culture. “The Mutual Improvement Club saw that there was no li brary in Bryan, and that there needed to be something to keep the people off of the streets,” Mounce said. “They felt they needed to help people from engaging in worthless activities like drink ing.” The Mutual Improvement Club, which later became the Woman’s Club, headed by Rose Fountain Howell and George Brandon of Bryan, spearheaded the movement to have the library erected. At the time, Andrew Carnegie was funding the con struction of free public libraries around the world, so the work ing class would have access to books in order to further their own education. Mounce said Bryan’s Carnegie Library was con structed during the time when Carnegie was known as the pa tron gaint of public libraries. “[Carnegie’s project began] in 1891 with the gift of a library to his birthplace in Scotland, she said “Carnegie, and later [the]Carnegie Corporation of New York, gave $56 million to build 2,509 public libraries in English-speaking nations from 1896 to 1919.” “There has been no compa rable philanthropic service throughout library history.” Mounce said the people of Bryan were lucky, because they had a link to Carnegie himself. “Thomas Stewart, a Bryan resident, had been a life-long friend of Carnegie,” Mounce said. “He wrote to Carnegie and said the city needed some cultural activity. “Carnegie quickly agreed to give $10,000 to erect the build ing if the city of Bryan would grant the land for the building and $1,000 per year to main tain the free library.” Currently, the Carnegie Pub lic Library in Bryan is the old est standing Carnegie Library in Texas. Of the thousands of Carnegie libraries erected, 33 were constructed in Texas — only 14 still stand. Nancy Ross, the Carnegie li brarian, said the library restoration is almost finished. “The building is being re stored, not rehabilitated. We wanted to keep the building as see Library on Page 4. I aritt The Battalion Online offers access to The WIRE news from The Associated Press The WIRE provides continuously updated news coverage from one of the world's oldest, largest news services via The Battalion's web page. • A comprehensive, up-to-the-minute news report combining the latest AP stories with photos, graphics, sound and video. ■ Headlines and bulletins delivered as soon as news breaks. ■ U.S.,World, Business,Sports,Science,Technology,Weather,Arts, and Special Sections. http://battalion.tamu.edu August Graduates last chance - dont miss out! 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