The Carnegie Library That Wasn’t
The first library in Freeport was created and housed in Freeport’s only school beginning in 1884. A year after a devastating fire destroyed this school building a new school was dedicated in 1894. The new building included a separate, albeit small, library space. This 18 x 28-foot room included a reading area and stacks. Though small, the library was a huge improvement from its original location; the principal’s coat closet. This modest space housed between 2,600 and 2,700 books with an impressive circulation of 8,600 in 1902.
In May 1903, Eugene F. McKinley, superintendent of the Freeport schools, applied for funding to build a Carnegie library.
That following November, McKinley received a response from Andrew Carnegie’s secretary, James Bertram, stating that Freeport was eligible for a Carnegie library. Bertram’s short and somewhat cryptic communication read:
Responding to your communications on behalf of Freeport – If the City agree by resolution of cuncils [sic] to maintain a Free Public Library at cost of not less than One Thousand Dollars a year and provide a suitable site for the building, Mr. Carnegie will be pleased to furnish Ten Thousand Dollars to erect a Free Public Library Building for Freeport.
On November 24, McKinley wrote back thanking Mr. Carnegie for his generosity and asking for guidance:
Should our next step be to have the resolution suggested in your letter passed by our City Council and then submitted to the people for ratification? Have you any blank forms of resolutions? Any information relating to these matters will be greatly appreciated.
Bertram’s response, dated November 25, was terse and somewhat condescending:
Yours of 24th received. The letter of offer is very plain. If you will follow out just literally what it says, you will require no explanations.
The Carnegie Archives at Columbia University and the archives of the Freeport Memorial Library do not contain any additional communications between Carnegie and McKinley nor are there any clues in local newspapers as to additional correspondence between the two organizations. However, there is a letter in the Carnegie Archives from Freeport librarian Alice Rogan to Burrells Press Clippings Company, dated November 4, 1911, requesting information about Carnegie libraries constructed after Andrew Carnegie’s death.
The reasons why Freeport’s Carnegie library never materialized are purely speculative and may have included one or more of these factors:
Freeport’s Board of Education may have been turned off by James Bertram’s pithy communications. Scholars have described Bertram as “brusque in manner, and short and direct in his speech” and “lacking tact and patience.” Eugene F. McKinley, who was a trained attorney, and members of the school board (Hiram H. Smith, William G. Miller, Henry P. Libby, Samuel R. Smith, and Albin N. Johnson), all prominent men, could have easily been outraged by Bertram’s dismissive tone.
In the original communications with Carnegie, McKinley and the school board did not believe that acquiring a site for a library and agreeing to pledge $1,000 in annual maintenance would be a problem for “our progressive village.” This could have been an oversell. Since its incorporation in 1892, the Village of Freeport had created a water and power department - an $80,000 investment according to the school board. Four additional fire companies were organized between 1893 and 1895, which required tax increases to pay for firehouses and firefighting equipment. After a fire devastated Freeport’s only school in 1893, a new school was constructed in 1894 for $30,000. In 1902, a $30,000 addition was added to the building. In the paperwork submitted to the Carnegie organization, the annual expenditure for the Freeport library was between $315 to $550. It is impossible to know if doubling the library expenditure would have ever been approved by the Freeport taxpayer.
The last possible reason for Freeport not pursuing a Carnegie library may have to do with the fact that Freeport lost its Carnegie point-person when Eugene McKinley left the Freeport schools in November 1904. Six years later, it is reported that the school board requested that the board secretary contact Carnegie to see if his “old offer still holds good.” There is no evidence that the later correspondence took place.
In the 33 years that Carnegie bestowed libraries on communities, 1903 saw the highest number of communities promised a building. Early in Carnegie library history, the process moved slowly. There was “a lengthy period from the original offer to the actual completion of the building.” Our neighbor, Rockville Centre, was approved for a Carnegie library the same year as Freeport. However, it would take until 1912 – nine years - until their Carnegie library was constructed. Freeport probably would have had time to successfully reconnect with Bertram about getting a library. Whatever the reason, clashing personalities, fear of taxpayer ire, or lacking a person committed to the cause, the Freeport Memorial Library building would not be realized until 1924 without any assistance from Andrew Carnegie.
Sources:
Bobinski, George S. Carnegie Libraries: Their History and Impact on American Public Library Development. Chicago: American Library Association, 1969.
Communications from Eugene McKinley and James Bertram. Carnegie Archives, Columbia University.
“Freeport.” South Side Messenger. December 2, 1910, 1. Accessed May 8, 2024. https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=ssm19101202-01.1.1
Freeport Memorial Library Archives.
Groves, Marion Nash. The History of the Freeport Memorial Library, 1884-1938. [Library School Thesis, Long Island University], 1968. Accessed May 8, 2024. https://libguides.freeportlibrary.info/ld.php?content_id=64414140.
“Library For Rockville Centre.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 8, 1904, 7. Accessed May 9, 2024. Newspapers.com.
Researched by Regina G. Feeney, May 9, 2024.