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Published Wednesday, September 16, 2009 in Local

People packed the Greenville Street Park Tuesday night for entertainment by the Royal Scottish Country Dancers. The crowd then processed up Greenville Street to the Newnan Carnegie Library for an official ribbon cutting and to tour the facility.

Photo by Jeffrey Leo

People packed the Greenville Street Park Tuesday night for entertainment by the Royal Scottish Country Dancers. The crowd then processed up Greenville Street to the Newnan Carnegie Library for an official ribbon cutting and to tour the facility.

City reopens historic library

By Elizabeth Richardson

The Times-Herald

On Tuesday, citizens of the city of Newnan came together to celebrate the "rebirth" of the Newnan Carnegie Library.

"Carnegie has regained its proper place in downtown Newnan," said Mayor Keith Brady.

People packed the Greenville Street Park to enjoy a performance by the Royal Scottish Country Dancers before processing up Greenville Street to the newly restored Carnegie building. Rain may have driven the ribbon cutting indoors, but it didn't dampen the spirits of those in attendance -- many of whom recalled memories of the building in its original splendor.

Vikki Hill brought her family to witness the historic occasion. Her daughter also sang in the Atkinson Elementary School chorus.

"I watched them work on the building for so long, and I've been interested to see how it would turn out," said Hill. She said she's thrilled to have a place in downtown to bring her children.

Brady told the community the story about how the Carnegie library came to be in downtown. He talked about the letter that then-21-year-old Charles Thompson, of Newnan, wrote to Andrew Carnegie to convince him to support the creation of a library in Newnan.

Brady said the city has been faithful to Thompson's vision and has restored the building to a place of learning and knowledge -- "a place where people will come to learn the pleasures of reading."

Brady said that both Thompson and Carnegie would have been proud of the work that the Newnan-Coweta Library Foundation has done to see that Carnegie is once again an exceptional place.

Alise Cartledge, a member of the NCLF, spoke of the process that the citizens went through to restore the building. When the courts vacated the building in 2007, citizens "mobilized" within weeks to see that the building would be restored according to the wishes of the community. The effort took much collaboration between the city, the foundation, architects, construction crews and other friends of the library.

The NCLF welcomed Glenn Walsh, a noted authority on the life of Andrew Carnegie, from out of state to speak at Tuesday's ceremony. Newnan's Carnegie building is the first to return to its original purpose after being converted to another use. Walsh encouraged people to learn about the life of Carnegie on the Web at andrewcarnegie.cc .

Celebration week continues today with a preschool open house featuring storytellers. Storytellers have been scheduled in 30-minute increments from 9:15 to 1:30 p.m.

The library will be open weekdays from 9-5 p.m. For information about the building or to volunteer, e-mail Media Coordinator Amy Mapel at amapel@cityofnewnan.org , or call the library, 770-683-1347.

Comment On This Story

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Scottish Dancers

9/21/2009

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Is it possible to get/buy a larger copy of the picture of the dancers in this article? Thanks

Posted by Werner Linz at 2:53 PM

wonderful!

9/17/2009

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So excited about the opening of the Carnegie building and can't wait to go often! Way to go Newnan for continuing to provide things to do/see in our beautiful downtown.

Posted by alewis at 12:45 PM

ohh wake up please

9/17/2009

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"i loved the pipes and kilts" ohh wake up Ed .. The Scottish parliment has just released the Lockerbie bomber ! we should boycott all whats Scottish !

Posted by Brookfoot Boner at 4:00 AM

Liked the pipes and kilts

9/16/2009

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I loved the pipes and kilts! Thanks to all of you.

Posted by Ed at 6:03 PM

Tuesday was a good day.

9/16/2009

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I'd like to see bagpipes around more often. And kilts

Posted by a. carnegie at 5:06 PM

Library picture

9/16/2009

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There's a great picture of the Library in yesterday's paper already!

Posted by One of the idiots at 2:44 PM

Idiots in the field

9/16/2009

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Sorry you didn't like the picture, but the Library is still there for you to look at today, while we all have gone. The organizers felt that a little Scottish dancing was an appropriate tribute to Mr Carnegie, a famous Scot

Posted by One of the idiots at 1:38 PM

Library

9/16/2009

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Agreed, definitely geared towards non-working moms that have non-school age children.

Posted by Excited at 11:37 AM

suggestion box at library

9/16/2009

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everyone please use the suggestion box at the library - this way they'll know what the community wants. I'd like to see the library open Saturday and Sunday with check out

Posted by a. carnegie at 11:23 AM

Library

9/16/2009

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I can't believe you did not put a photo of the actual library with this story. I don't care about people running around like idiots in a field. I want to see the image of the library. Fire the editor!!!

Posted by Jasper Jackson at 9:37 AM

Another gem in downtown Newnan

9/16/2009

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The "new" library is fabulous! Kudos to all who came together to make this happen. It is a gift for our community and another real treasure among many in downtown Newnan. We were delighted to see it last night & look forward to visiting often.

Posted by Resident at 9:08 AM

Hours of operation

9/16/2009

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This is a great asset to downtown Newnan and I appreciate all the efforts it took to get this project completed. I do wish however, that the hours could be 10 - 6 or even 7 so that the people who work downtown from 9-5 could also enjoy the facilty.

Posted by downtowner at 8:44 AM

Happy

9/16/2009

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I am glad to see it is open. Great story.

Posted by just me at 8:21 AM

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