A shot of the interior of the Carnegie Library at Park and Victoria. The building was built in 1903, and was demolished following the opening of the new Central Library Branch on Ouellette Avenue in 1973.
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Got my first library card there in the early 1950’s. Great baseball history section. Summer vacation mornings…hot, dusty and the smell of old books. Was there a creaky old mahogany staircase to a second floor? Thanks so much for this reminder of that wonderful place and time.
What a building…and now? A little hill (surprised it isn’t a parking lot).
Was a beautiful building…it must have had to become an open spot for nothing.
:S
Actually the Carnegie apartment building is now on that site with well kept grounds and an underground parking garage.
Look at that pretty tile floor and the soaring ceilings. Looks much nicer that that white elephant on Ouellette.
The tile looks like an old bathroom and ironically there were no public washrooms.The building was small and overcrowded and totally inaccessible to the disabled.I’m sorry the Carnegie Library was destroyed but its replacement is a huge improvement both functionally and aesthetically.
A beautiful interior. It reminds me of some of the older branches still in use (but retro-fit) here in Toronto. Too bad it wasn’t joined with the new apartment building and used for meetings and entertainment, a sort of community centre.
the main branch on Ouellette has no character, I was in the library branch on Rocisvells in Toronto old but nice
The demolition of these libraries is tragic. All for a building that we now plan to abandon?
I worked as a ‘page’ in this library in the 60’s when I was in university. While it was pretty old, there have been many other Carnegie libraries of that era in North America that have been nicely re-done and saved, even to include full access and washrooms. The Windsor Carnegie was an excellent example and much larger than many others because the city was a good size when it was built. The woodwork alone would have made it worth saving. Here’s a list of the Carnegies still operating as public libraries in Ontario:
http://www.mtc.gov.on.ca/en/libraries/carnegie.shtml
There was a large addition to the south, probably built in the 50’s, which actually made the whole building pretty adequate for the 50’s and 60’s.