Photographs -
Andrew Carnegie Free Library
The following are photographs of the Andrew
Carnegie Free Library
and Music Hall,
300 Beechwood Avenue, Carnegie, Pennsylvania 15106-2699 USA
Original Oak Circulation Desk
The old and the new together: Librarians use a computer to checkout
library books for patrons, at the original oak circulation desk in the
Andrew Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie, Pa.
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Fireplace and Andrew Carnegie Portrait
A portrait of Andrew Carnegie hangs prominently over the fireplace, in
the main reading room of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library, Carnegie,
Pa.
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Librarians' Offices
The following photographs show the offices used by the Library
Staff.
The oak window frames and door frames, along with the oak doors, are
repeated throughout
the
Library.
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Original Oak Bookcases
The following photographs show the original oak bookcases,
which hold
the adult nonfiction and fiction collections.
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Public Computers Which Access the Internet
Computers, which access the Internet, allow library patrons to obtain
information from any part of the world. The library's computers are part
of the Electronic Information Network For Public Libraries in Allegheny
County, Pennsylvania(EIN). Partial funding for these computers came from
the Allegheny Regional Asset District, which distributes proceeds from a
one percent sales and use tax levied in Allegheny County.
Historic Library Children's
Room
The first Children's Room in a suburban public library, specifically designed and constructed to be a Children's Room, is in the
Andrew Carnegie Free Library of Carnegie, Pennsylvania. Photograph 1
highlights the original oak tables and chairs in the Children's
Room. Photograph 3
includes one of the Library's two original card catalogs, now used for the
children's book collection. Photograph 6 shows the beautiful, ornamental
skylight, which provides additional light to the Library's Children's
Room.
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The lower level of the Library includes a Discount Bookstore, which is
open to the public the same hours the Library is open to the public.
Photograph 2 shows the Mary Harris Room, one of three rooms which comprise
the Discount Bookstore; the third room, not shown, is a Chidren's Room.
The Mary Harris Room is dedicated to the memory of a long-time Library
Director, who served in the middle of the twentieth century. The Mary
Harris Room is also used for meetings and classes.
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Library Foyer
These are photographs of the marble-walled Foyer used as the entrance
to
the Free Library. The two staircases provide access to the 140-seat
Lecture Hall(once used as the Borough of Carnegie Council Chamber) and the
Civil War Museum(Captain Thomas Espy Post Number 153, Grand Army of the
Republic).
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The following are photographs of the Library's
acoustically-perfect, 788-seat Music Hall,
patterned after Carnegie Hall in New York City. The Carnegie Men's Glee
Club provided the first performance in the Music Hall on May 10, 1901.
Andrew Carnegie dedicated the Library building, on the stage of the Music
Hall on April 22, 1902. Photograph 1 shows the Music Hall Foyer.
Photograph 2 shows a 1997 recreation of the
1902 Music Hall curtain given
to the Library by Andrew Carnegie; the curtain includes a painting of
Andrew Carnegie's Scottish home, Skibo Castle. Photographs 3 and 4 are
scenes from the Stage
62 performance of The Music Man, performed
on the Music Hall stage in November of 1998. Photograph 5 is a scene
from The Pirates of Penzance, performed on the Music Hall stage
by The Pittsburgh Savoyards
in October of 1998. Photographs 6, 7, and 8
show the stage and the orchestra pit. Photograph 6 was taken
just prior to a Stage 62 performance of The Music Man.
Photograph 7 shows the Pittsburgh Savoyards Orchestra, at the
beginning of a performance of The Pirates of Penzance. Photographs
9, 10, and 11
show the Music Hall's balcony. Photograph 11 also provides a good picture
of the Music Hall's original mahogany seats(under each seat is a wire
frame, for storage of a gentleman's top hat). Photograph 12 shows the
"Auditorium Circle" of lights on the ceiling of the Music Hall.
Photograph 13 shows the outside entrance to the Music Hall, which is on
the side of the building facing Library Park.
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Civil War Museum(Captain Thomas
Espy Post Number 153, Grand Army of the Republic)
In 1906, the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic(G.A.R.),
a
Civil War
veterans' social organization, made an agreement with the Board of
Trustees of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library. A room on the second floor
of the Library building would become the permanent home of the Captain
Thomas Espy Post Number 153 of the Grand Army of the Republic; the
members
of the organization would store their artifacts and other memorabilia,
from the Civil War, in this room. When the last member of the Post "met
his final role call"(which occurred in 1937) the artifacts and
memorabilia would automatically become the property of the Library, to be
displayed as a Museum, so the public could learn more about the Civil War
and the men who fought in the conflict. These photographs show tourists
viewing artifacts in the Library's Civil War
Museum. Today, the Captain
Thomas Espy Post looks much as it did in 1906; it is the last G.A.R. Post
in its original condition(and original location) in Pennsylvania, and
possibly in the country.
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Photograph 1 shows the Gymnasium located on the lower level of the
Library building; the Gymnasium is currently leased to the
Carnegie
Performing Arts Center, a local, nonprofit dance and drama
school. Photographs 2 through 8 show various views of the
Library entrance of the building. Photographs 9 and 10 show the
two cannons, used in the Spanish-American War, which now guard
the Library entrance. Photograph 11 shows the side of the
building, looking towards the Music Hall entrance. Photograph 12 shows the
Music Hall entrance, which faces Library Park.
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The
Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall is located in Library Park, a small
in-town park on Library Hill, just above the Carnegie Borough business
district. On a dedication plaque in the
Library Foyer, Andrew
Carnegie declares that the additional property he purchased, that is not
needed for the Library building, is to be a public park. This includes a pedestrian plaza, which now includes a
sundial which tells both the time and the date, at the
northern tip of Library Park (corner of East Main Street and Broadway). As with the
Library building, the Library Park is managed for the benefit of the
citizens of Carnegie, by the Library Board of Trustees. Photograph 1 shows
the World War I Memorial in the
lower end of Library Park, near the intersection of Beechwood Avenue and Broadway.
Photographs 2 through 7 are various views of Library Park.
Photograph 8 shows the signboard, in the lower end of Library Park at
the intersection of Beechwood Avenue and Williams Way; near Broadway and
East Main Street, this signboard is used to announce performances in the
Music Hall. Photograph 9 shows one of the new park benches, recently
donated to Library Park by the Borough of Carnegie.
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"Library Park in Carnegie Borough to be Enhanced" 2016 August 20.
Plans for 2016 to 2019 Rehabilitation & Re-Design of Library Park
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What some people do not realize is that a
pedestrian plaza, at the corner of East Main Street and Broadway near the center of the business district of the Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie, Pennsylvania, is actually the
northern tip of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall's
Library Park. The land purchased by Andrew Carnegie included the entire hillside from the Library site, all the way to Main Street. In the first decade of the 21st century, the Borough of Carnegie (which manages this pedestrian plaza) installed a somewhat uncommon, open armillary sundial, which displays both the time and the date (of course, when the Sun is shining on the sundial), in this public plaza.
The North American Sundial Society visited this sundial on Friday Morning, 2018 August 17, during their 2018 annual conference, held in the Oakland Civic Center district of Pittsburgh.
The following are several photographs of this sundial (photographs taken on Wednesday Evening, 2018 August 15).
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Close-Up Photographs of Sundial
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Walsh, Glenn A.
"Are Sundials, to Tell Time, Really Obsolete ?" Blog-Post.
SpaceWatchtower 2018 Aug. 22.
Regarding the 2018 Annual Conference of the North American Sundial Society.
Page Seven of Declaration of Trust Agreement, where Andrew Carnegie purchases land,
at corner of East Main Street and Broadway, for the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall
Winter Scenes
The following are photographs of the Library building and Library Park
during the Winter season.
Photographs with Number (1): © Copyright 1999-2018
Lynne S. Walsh , All Rights Reserved.
Photographs with Number (7): © Copyright 2018
James McKee, All Rights Reserved.
Andrew Carnegie Free Library History Cover
Page.
History of the Andrew Carnegie
Free Library.
Information about the Andrew
Carnegie
Free Library.
Return to News Release - March 17,
1999:
Library Legally Established 100 Years Ago by Andrew Carnegie.
Return to Archives: News and Events.
Return to Andrew Carnegie Free
Library.
Return to History of Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries.
