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A New Public Library Building
A New Public Library Building
By 1901, the room in the City Building had become too small to house the rapidly growing Muncie Public Library. Not only was the city building in disrepair with a leaky roof, but also patrons complained about the vibrations from the punching bag used by the policemen to keep in shape. Additionally, when the city was considering ways to expand space for the library in 1897, it was suggested that the old council chamber be converted for library purposes. However, the old chamber was located directly above where the fire department’s horses were housed, and the smell would have made the space unpleasant for library patrons. With that in mind, the library board planned to improve and enlarge the library, but the question was how.
Andrew Carnegie, oil on canvas painted by Francis Luis Mora, undated
Souvenir spoon depicting Muncie Public Library as well as Muncie Normal School (now Ball State University) (MPL Archives, 2021)
The answer came in the form of American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. In 1901, Carnegie sold his steel business to J.P. Morgan for $480 million and decided to devote his life to philanthropy with a special emphasis on local libraries. Following the example of the nearby community of Marion, the Muncie Public Library board met on February 21, 1901 and decided to write a letter to Andrew Carnegie asking for a $50,000 gift to the city to be used for library purposes. The task for writing the letter was given to the Commercial Club, and a response was received stating that Carnegie would be happy to donate $50,000 on the terms that the city spends $5,000 annually for the upkeep of the library. The city council accepted, and a search began for a building site. Around this time, George W. Spilker, a county clerk and a banker, gave his home to the city of Muncie for library use. The city sold the home for $6,000, and the proceeds covered nearly half the cost that was paid to purchase the lot at the southeast corner of Jackson and Jefferson. The architect Marshall S. Mahurin of Fort Wayne designed the building, and the construction contract was awarded to Morrow and Morrow of Muncie. The foundation of the library was laid on June 1, 1902.
By the time construction was completed in 1903, the city had run out of money for books and furniture, so the library board came up with a clever idea to procure the needed funds. They sent a golden souvenir spoon with an image of the library engraved in the bowl to Andrew Carnegie’s daughter and included a letter to let her know how grateful the city of Muncie was to her father for his generosity. The letter also happened to mention the fact that the library was low on funds for books and furniture. Carnegie was so touched by the gift that he sent a check for $5,000 for books and furniture. Over the years that followed, additional spoons with the engraved image of Carnegie Library were produced as souvenirs. A silver one belonging to Elisabeth Ball is in the Heritage Collection at Minnetrista, and a prototype spoon is in the collections at Carnegie Library.
The new library was dedicated on January 1, 1904 with about a thousand people attending the ceremony. Miss Artena M. Chapin was Librarian. At the time of opening, the library had 1,777 borrowers and 19,291 volumes.
This grandfather clock, currently on the second floor of Carnegie Library, has been with the library since the day it opened on January 1, 1904. Prominent local citizen Charles A. Willard presented the clock to Muncie Public Library. (MPL Archives, 2019)
“Wheeling Pike as it appeared in 1891” currently hangs on the wall in front of the Isabel Urban Ball Music and Meeting Room on the 2nd floor of Carnegie Library. This painting has been with the library since it opened and was purchased for the library by Board President Theodore F. Rose. Hoosier artist J. Ottis Adams painted the landscape, and it depicts downtown Muncie viewed from Wheeling Pike near the residence of Judge Koons. The third Delaware County Courthouse, razed in 1966, can be seen in the background. Adams began the painting in the Autumn of 1891 and unveiled it in 1899. Before it came to the library, this painting hung in the courtroom of that courthouse you can see in the background. (MPL Archives, 2019)
The Early Years, 1904-1940
The Early Years, 1904-1940
After the Carnegie Library building first opened to the public, the early decades saw many adjustments as Muncie Public Library settled into its new lodgings and evaluated what the community needed from the library. For example, after the first year, the library found that the Reference Room was too small. Consequently, the Children’s Department became the new Reference Room while the Children’s Room moved to the ground level in order to expand and promote the education and enjoyment of literature among children.
The Reference Room of Muncie Public Library circa 1930s in the west wing of the library on the second floor (Sipe, Middletown’s Library, 1936)
The Juvenile Department of Muncie Public Library circa 1930s in the east wing on the ground floor (Sipe, Middletown’s Library, 1936)
During this time, Muncie Public Library became a depository of U.S. government documents. The collection grew so quickly that the auditorium in the building, which had been used for story hours, meetings, and exhibits, was converted to a new storage space for the collection. Concurrently, librarians noticed a growing need to serve business and industry in the community, so a portion of this area also was made into a Business and Technical Reading Room.
As Muncie expanded, so did the library with the introduction of the branch system. During these decades, MPL began its Extension Service with book drops, a bookmobile, and collections within schools. MPL also opened its new Maring Library branch (thanks to a bequest from Mrs. Grace Keiser Maring, a former library board member) as well as a branch at Lincoln School.
The Charging Desk, located on the second floor of Muncie Public LIbrary facing towards the Jackson Street entrance and directly under the building's dome (Sipe, Middletown's Library, 1936)
A group of students, possibly around term paper time, work in the west wing of the Carnegie Library building (MPL Archives, ca. 1920s).
The Middle Years, 1941-1970
The Middle Years, 1941-1970
The U.S. entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Muncie Public Library answered the call to help the war effort in any way it could by participating in Victory Book Drives and donating books to men in the armed forces. Reading habits also shifted during this time to subjects related to the war effort like nutrition, first aid, gardening, machine shop work, automotive mechanics, welding, and electricity to name a few, so the library curated the collection based on those needs. Main Library, i.e. Carnegie Library, was the center of operations for these efforts.
Librarian Katherine Mohler Brown speaks to a patron on the phone at the Reference desk (MPL Archives, n.d.).
After the war, Muncie Public Library continued to grow, reorganize, and modernize to fit community needs. One such advance began in 1949 with the microfiliming of the newspapers within the collection in partnership with Muncie Newspapers, Inc. This had the benefits of eliminating the need to store the original within the library as well as saving historical information from the crumbling papers for future researchers. In 1950, the Isabel Urban Ball Memorial Collection was established by Edmund F. Ball in memory of his wife who had died as the result of a boating accident. It quickly became one of the most used collections at the library, especially with the addition of a record player for listening to selections. The collection included sheet music, records, films, and books. It eventually became its own department within Main Library.
However, as Muncie Public Library grew, so did the storage problem at the Main Library. In 1954, a mezzanine tier of bookstacks was added to the library and provided storage for 30,000 volumes previously located in the basement. Despite this addition and the removal of Extension Services and administration from the Carnegie building, MPL still did not have a perfect solution to the space requirement needs for a growing community. Thus, at the end of these decades, administration began exploring the possibility of constructing a new central library in downtown Muncie.
Carnegie Library before and after the addition of the mezzanine; The mezzanine of bookstacks would have been where the Isabel Urban Ball Music and Meeting Room is now. Many patrons who come into the library remember it and where they could find their favorite genres of books (MPL Archives, ca. 1954).
Librarian Alice Rude, who would later become Kennedy Library’s first branch manager, helps a patron search for information using the card catalog. Although many libraries no longer use a card catalog, Carnegie Library still has these, and they are used to house our obituary and court record index. The obituary index is currently being added to the Muncie/Delaware Co. Digital Resource Library hosted by MPL. (MPL Archives, n.d.)
Carnegie Library, 2nd floor looking east circa 1950s (MPL Archives, photograph by Ruth Chin)
Carnegie Library, 2nd floor looking west after 1954 (MPL Archives, photograph by Ruth Chin)
The Golden Years, 1971-2000
The Golden Years, 1971-2000
“It was regarded in a different kind of way than it is now because it was the Main Library. It’s where you came to go to the children’s room. It was where you came to get AV materials. It’s where you came to get reference information. It was where you came for everything that was in a library at that time, and the picture really changes then when you go to the branches.” - Norma Lasley, 10-23-2023
In the 1970s, the library board continued to explore the feasibility of building a new central library with the knowledge that many in the community feared the loss of the old Carnegie building. Feasibility studies in 1974 came up with a solution. The new central building would house everything but the Audiovisual Department, which would be located in Carnegie Library as it continued to expand exponentially. However, when it came time to petition the community, a remonstrance to the petition defeated the proposed building program in 1975.
This image is a concept drawing for a new central library in downtown Muncie designed by Bradley & Bradley of Archonics, Inc. In the background, you can see the old Carnegie Library, which would have served as an extension to the new building.(MPL Archives, ca. 1974)
Many in the community realized the importance of the Carnegie Library building, and in 1976, it was registered as a landmark on the National Register of Historical Places, the first in Muncie to be designated as such. Major renovations of the library also occurred in the 1980s to update the building, which included the removal, cleaning, and reinstallation of the original stained glass in the building’s dome.
A patron peruses a book in the collection while leaning against one of the library’s signature columns. Although the columns look like they were made of marble, they were not. If you tap on them the next time you are in the building, you will hear a hollow sound. The look was achieved using a technique of layering plaster and paint called "scagliola" that imitates decorative stone. (MPL Archives, ca. 1970s)
A once in a lifetime sight to see, the dome of Carnegie Library without its beautiful stained glass! When the library was first built, the dome of the library did not have a protective roof covering it, and the sunlight streamed beautifully through the stained glass. However, as the building aged, this area began to leak, and we have stories of librarians getting rained upon as a result. In 1952, a protective roof was added to not only solve this problem but also safeguard the original glass for future generations. In the 1980s, work began to not only update the insulation and roof to the dome but also clean and restore the original glass within it. Lights above the dome were added to simulate the sunlight that used to come into the library. (MPL Archives, ca. 1980s, first photograph by Jeff Martin)
Dixie Van Camp talks about the evolution of checking out library materials from paper to computerization. Throughout the past few decades, technology has had a tremendoug impact upon the services that libraries provide to their communities.
Akilah Nosakhere working on the Community Information Project, a directory of civic agencies and services, ca. 1984; Akilah Nosakhere would go on to become MPL’s Director in 2016. She retired in 2024. (MPL Archives)
Main Library continued to operate as a reference center throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, but patrons would see something new in the library that revolutionized library service, computers! This technology not only allowed for the creation of an automated, searchable catalog of all the holdings within Muncie Public Library, but also gave librarians the ability to create databases of information on relevant subjects. Overall, the use of technology provided library customers with easier access to the collection and the information contained within it.
By 2000, the central library in the Carnegie building had embraced and led the way for technology within the Muncie Public Library system. However, big changes were on the way in the next millennium.
Longtime Reference Librarian Norma Lasley peruses some books on the second floor of what is now Carnegie Library. Norma began her career as a librarian here in 1964 and retired in 1996. In the background, you can see a patron using one of the library’s computers. (MPL Archives, 1994)
Our buildings are not the only things that have changed over the years. Our collections have too as community needs and technology evolves. In this clip, Norma Lasley talks about the telephone directory collection at Carnegie Library, which was once a large portion of the Reference collection in the library.
A Reimagined Library, 2001-2009
A Reimagined Library, 2001-2009
The inside of Carnegie Library undergoes demolition. The view looks towards the west wing of the building and shows what would become the Isabel Urban Ball Music and Meeting Room as well as the new Children’s Department. (MPL Archives, 2002)
The beginning of the millennium also signaled a new start for Carnegie Library. With the opening of Maring-Hunt Library in 2002 on the southside, main operations for Muncie Public Library moved to the new branch, and the library could focus on reimagining and renovating Carnegie Library. It would no longer be the main branch of MPL as technology had rendered that concept obsolete, but instead, the focus of the library would be music appreciation while the collection focused on bestsellers, cookbooks, gardening books, and audiovisual materials. The Isabel Urban Ball Music and Meeting Room was also added and built to be acoustically engineered so that the library could offer performances within the space. The newly renovated library, which opened in 2003, would further have what then Director Ginny Nilles referred to as “people space” with a café, homework center for teens, and a computer lab. Although the music appreciation concept did not quite take off at Carnegie Library, it did serve as a downtown hub for circulating materials and computer usage during these years.
The new computer lab on the ground floor of Carnegie Library after the remodel (MPL Archives, 2003)
The new second floor of Carnegie Library after the remodel; The library held a grand opening event to celebrate with the public the completed renovation of Muncie’s oldest public library building. (MPL Archives, 2003)
On the back side of the parking lot, MPL constructed a Local History and Genealogy Center to house the archives that were in Carnegie Library and offer a building dedicated to research of this type.
Our Community Treasure, 2009-Present
Our Community Treasure, 2009-Present
The year 2009 again saw many changes for the Carnegie Library building. Unfortunately, due to property tax caps and decreased funding for libraries, MPL had to make the difficult decision to close the Local History and Genealogy Center in order to remain fiscally solvent. Carnegie Library was then reimagined as the new Local History and Genealogy branch of Muncie Public Library, and it still serves this purpose presently.
Carnegie Library offers a variety of records pertaining to the history and families of primarily Delaware County and East Central Indiana – county records from the local courthouse such as marriages, deeds, wills and probate records; newspapers on microfilm, school yearbooks, artifacts, photos, diaries, histories, city directories, and more. Customers are welcome to use our facilities during our open hours, which can be found on our website at www.munpl.org. Be sure to watch our documentary Carnegie Library: A Community Treasure to learn about our Carnegie Library building and its importance to the Muncie community.
Carnegie Library held a genealogy fair in 2019 showcasing all of the local organizations available to people who enjoy tracing their family roots. (MPL Archives)
Carnegie Library holds records on behalf of the county that date all the way back to the earliest beginnings of our locality. Many of these books came out of the third Delaware County Courthouse that was demolished in 1966 and were saved thanks to the efforts of a Ball State history professor named Althea Stoeckel. The local history records at Ball State Archives and Special Collections are named for Stoeckel due to her contributions towards saving local history records in Delaware County. Additional records were transferred to MPL over the years for digitization and increased public access. (MPL Archives, 2014)
Do you have a favorite memory of Carnegie Library over the years? Please consider sharing it by clicking here.
Sources
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