I've done several posts on this blog related to the history of libraries in the state. You can find a listing of many here. At one time I did some work on a chronology of Alabama library development. So naturally on one of my recent wanderings through Alabama Mosaic this photograph from early in the 20th century caught my eye.
Between 1900 and 1919 money from industrialist Andrew Carnegie built 19 libraries in Alabama. This effort was a small part of the more than 2500 he funded from 1883 and 1929. Most were located in Europe and the U.S., but others were constructed in Australia and other places.
This small public library in Livingston in west Alabama was not a Carnegie project, but one of many others nationwide that opened during that "Carnegie period". In her 2006 article "Bricks, books, and metaphor: the place of first libraries in Alabama communities", Annabel Stephens included information about this library:
The ladies of the Primrose Club were lucky to have use of this former office. building. Initial public libraries in other communities in the state were opened in places ranging from hotels to houses to an old pump house. See Stephens article for more details.
The other photo shows the Livingston public library today. The facility is named for Ruby Pickens Tartt [1880-1974] one of Alabama's greatest folklorists and a Livingston native.
I wonder what happened to the original building?
Source: Ruby Pickens Tartt Public Library, Livingston
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