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
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