List of Carnegie libraries in West Virginia

Hinton

Huntington

Parkersburg

Bethany College

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West Virginia Carnegie libraries

The following list of Carnegie libraries in West Virginia provides detailed information on United States Carnegie libraries in West Virginia, where 3 public libraries were built from 3 grants (totaling $81,500) awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1901 to 1907. In addition, one academic library was built. Communities who rejected Carnegie grants often did so because they were unable to raise the 10 percent annual maintenance fee that Carnegie required or they did not have an adequate building site available. The towns of Bluefield and Williamson were both unable to provide a suitable building site for a new library. Leaders in the Charleston community did not think the Carnegie grant was substantial enough to build a library that would adequately serve their population. Officials at the time said Charleston "should have a more commodious library than $45,000 would erect."[1] Carnegie refused to modify the award and a bond proposal to raise more funds in 1915 failed. In Wheeling, labor leaders ensured that the town would not receive a Carnegie award; they effectively boycotted the municipal bond levy due to the deaths of steelworkers at Carnegie's Homestead, Pennsylvania mill during the 1892 strike.[1]

Key

  Building standing, but now serving another purpose
  Building listed on the National Register of Historic Places
  Building contributes to a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places

Public libraries

	Library	City or town	Image	Date granted[2]	Grant amount[2]	Location	Notes
1	Hinton	Hinton		Apr 8, 1907	$12,500	419 Ballengee St. 37°40′30″N 80°53′14″W	The library was built in 1911–12.[3] Now Veterans Memorial Museum
2	Huntington	Huntington		Dec 30, 1901	$35,000	900 5th Ave. 38°25′11″N 82°26′37″W	After opening July 27, 1904, this library served the community until 1980, when a new library opened across the street. This building is currently Huntington Junior College.
3	Parkersburg	Parkersburg		Dec 29, 1903	$34,000	725 Green St. 39°15′57″N 81°33′22″W	Opened on October 5, 1905, this library closed in 1976 when a new library was built. It later housed Trans-Allegheny Books, the largest used bookstore in West Virginia. The bookstore closed in 2010.[4]

Academic library

	Institution	Town	Image	Date granted[5]	Grant amount[5]	Location	Notes
1	Bethany College	Bethany		Feb 16, 1905	$20,000	Cramblet Hall 40°12′17″N 80°33′36″W	Serving as a library until 1960, this building reopened as Cramblet Hall on June 3, 1961, and has since housed various offices.[6]

Notes

1. "e-WV | Carnegie Libraries". www.wvencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
2. At various times, Bobinski and Jones disagree on these numbers. In these cases, Jones' numbers have been used due to both a more recent publication date and a more detailed gazetteer of branch libraries, which are often where the discrepancies occur.
3. "The Hinton News December 27 Page 16". Retrieved 2017-11-13.
4. Dawson, Jim. "Parkersburg High School & (Old) Carnegie Library". Retrieved 2009-07-16.
5. Miller, pp. 38–40
6. Carney, Brent (2004). Bethany College. Charleston, SC: Arcadia. ISBN 0-7385-1660-0.

References

• Anderson, Florence (1963). Carnegie Corporation Library Program 1911–1961. New York: Carnegie Corporation. OCLC 1282382.
• Bobinski, George S. (1969). Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development. Chicago: American Library Association. ISBN 0-8389-0022-4.
• Jones, Theodore (1997). Carnegie Libraries Across America. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-14422-3.
• Miller, Durand R. (1943). Carnegie Grants for Library Buildings, 1890-1917. New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York. OCLC 2603611.

Note: The above references, while all authoritative, are not entirely mutually consistent. Some details of this list may have been drawn from one of the references without support from the others. Reader discretion is advised.