For the June edition of the Grahamstown Gazette, I was asked to write an feature on the Thames Carnegie Library building - the building which is currently home to The Treasury research centre.
Carnegie
Free Library
Much like its modern neighbour, the Thames Carnegie Free
Library building was not without controversy when it was built in 1905.
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-born philanthropist who
had made his fortune as a steel magnate. He funded hundreds of free libraries
around the English-speaking world, including eighteen in New Zealand. Having
benefitted from free access to private libraries when he was young, Mr.
Carnegie believed in the value of lifelong learning and free education for the
public. 'If one boy in each library district,’ he once said, ‘by having access
to one of these libraries is half as much benefited as I was by having access
to Colonel Anderson's four hundred well-worn volumes, I shall consider they
have not been established in vain.'
As early as 1902, the citizens of Thames had begun
petitioning Andrew Carnegie to help fund a free library for Thames. He agreed in 1904, contributing £2000 to the
building of Thames’ library. The Carnegie Library replaced the town’s
Mechanics’ Institute library, which had served the gold field from the same
site since the 1870s.
Unlike typical buildings of the period, the Library
was constructed in brick instead of timber, with a distinctive facade, pressed
metal ceilings and huge windows to let the light in. There were few other
buildings so architecturally unique in the district. These features are still
intact today.
When the new library’s foundation stone was laid in
1905, the Observer mused that ‘some warm criticism has been passed on this
salubrious district for ‘soiling its hands with money made at the expense of
sweated thousands,’’ in reference to Andrew Carnegie’s grant towards the
opening of the library. General opinion seemed to be that a town as wealthy as
Thames should not be relying on outside donations for such major public
amenities. One writer at The Free Lance went so far as to call our library an
‘abasement,’ applauding Wellington City for not similarly submitting to the
same ‘humiliation’ of asking for a donation from Mr. Carnegie.
Later, in 1906, more controversy ensured over how the
Thames Borough Council defined the term ‘free library.’ Libraries were going
through something of a revolution in the early twentieth century, and the
stipulation that all Carnegie Libraries should offer their contents to the
entire community free of any charge was a new concept for Thames to grasp. The
council, it turned out, was charging five shillings a year for subscription
fees.
The Thames Carnegie Library was a much-loved focal
point for the town throughout most of last century, until the library moved to
new premises in 1990. Several community groups made good use of the empty rooms
in the interim, but by 2008 the building was worse for wear and in dire need of
earthquake strengthening. Fortunately, TCDC decided to restore rather than
demolish the old building, and The Coromandel Heritage Trust was able to rent
and reopen it to the public as The Treasury in 2009.
Today the Carnegie Free Library building is fully
restored and still a place of learning and discovery for the whole region.
Comments
Post a Comment