USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1909 > Part 20
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On the evening of the meeting of the board of trade on September 10, previously mentioned, there was some informal talk as to the advisability of asking Andrew Carnegie to give a library building. This idea did not meet with the approval of the majority, but John F. Foster was led to believe that a happy solution of the problem lay in securing the aid of Mr. Carnegie, and quietly, and on his own responsibility, began to work along these lines. He had a talk with R. A. Franks, a financial agent of Mr. Carnegie. This he followed up with a letter to Mr. Franks on March 14, 1907, in which he refers to a sentiment prevailing in West Somerville in favor of asking Mr. Carnegie
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to make a gift to the city of Somerville of a branch library building, in consequence of the apparent improbability of se- curing an appropriation for the purpose from the city, and asks that the usual application papers for such a request be sent to him. After an exhaustive inquiry into the existing library facilities of the city and the supposed needs of the West Somer- ville district, Mr. Bertram, private. secretary of Mr. Carnegie, writes on April 9 that, "if the city agrees by resolution of coun- cil to maintain a branch library at a cost of not less than $2,500 a year, being additional to the gross amount now spent on the central library, and procures a suitable site for the branch building, Mr. Carnegie will be glad to give $25,000 for the erec- tion of a branch library building for the city of Somerville." The offer was submitted to the city council at their meeting of April 25, and was referred by them to the finance committee. At the suggestion of the mayor, the city solicitor was requested to draw a suitable resolution meeting the requirements of Mr. Carnegie, and not taking from the trustees of the library the control of their department. Further questions having arisen, it was ascertained that it was Mr. Carnegie's intention that per- manent fixtures, such as shelving, stacks, and delivery desk, should be purchased from the gift. No restrictions were im- posed by Mr. Carnegie regarding the choice of architect or the style of the structure.
After a conference with the trustees, a public hearing, thorough discussion, long deliberation, and a reiteration of the sentiment of the community of West Somerville, as expressed at a public meeting held on June 12, the offer of Mr. Carnegie was formally accepted by the city council, and its action ap- proved by the mayor on October 29. In this order of accept- ance the mayor was authorized to promise, in behalf of the city government, the annual appropriation required by the terms of the gift. Mayor Grimmons, having satisfied Mr. Franks that a fitting site had been selected, that the land was free of liens, and that the city was ready to begin building, called to his aid an advisory committee, consisting of E. S. Sparrow, L. E. Merry, Rev. J. V. Garton, J. F. Foster, and James Davis, prominent citizens of West Somerville, and W. T. Littlefield, commissioner of public works, and Dr. E. C. Booth, presi- dent of the board of trustees of the public library, and pro- ceeded immediately to the task in hand. At the first meeting of the mayor and the advisory board on January 14, 1908, it was decided to invite an open competition of architects for a design for the building. The second meeting, on March 17, was held for the purpose of inspecting the thirty-five plans submitted. On March 19 the mayor formally invited the trus- tees of the library and the librarian to express their opinions on the plans, through their president. At the third meeting, on April 28, the members of the committee handed in their choice
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of the best five plans in the order of their preference. At the fourth meeting, on October 8, it was decided to place the words "Public Library" on the lintel over the front door. The mayor selected the plan drawn by McLean & Wright, architects of Boston, which was generally admitted to embrace the best features exteriorly and interiorly, and at the same time could be carried out within the amount of the gift. The building contract was awarded to Charles H. Belledue, and ground was first broken on July 9. The building having been completed and the furniture installed, in accordance with the wishes of the trustees, the library building was dedicated with appropriate exercises on May 26, 1909, and formally turned over to the con- trol of the trustees of the public library. The building was placed in the centre of the spacious lot on College avenue, for- merly occupied by the Lincoln schoolhouse, and faces south- easterly. From the front stairway hall of this beautiful and commodious building stairs rise on the one side to a spacious auditorium, with stage and ante-rooms, and descend on the other to a well-lighted basement. From the vestibule we enter the library proper-a hall, with reading room on one side for adults, on the other for children, occupying the front part of the wings. In this hall space the delivery desk is so placed as to command the two side rooms and the radiating stacks in the rear. The total width of the building is seventy-one feet, and the depth sixty-seven feet.
Photographs of the interior and exterior of the building will be found elsewhere in this report, and an account of the dedicatory exercises is herewith appended :-
ADDRESS OF WALTER T. LITTLEFIELD, COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
"Mr. Mayor, Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: About one year ago the first step was taken towards the erection of the beautiful building in the dedication of which you are taking part this evening. It has been my duty to exercise a general super- vision over the construction work, and I desire to state pub- licly at this time my appreciation of the advice and counsel which has been given me by the members of the advisory com- mittee and all others connected with its erection. I also wish to state that my official relations with the architects, contrac- tors, and all concerned have been most pleasant, and that this building has been completed without friction or controversy. I hold in my hands, Mr. Mayor, the keys to this building, and as commissioner of public buildings of this city I now pass them to you as the city's chief executive."
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ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR, MAYOR JOHN M. WOODS.
"In dedicating this library, I believe the thought and pur- pose that was in the mind and heart of the generous donor, Andrew Carnegie, and as well of Mr. Foster and all who have assisted or contributed towards the erection and completion of this building, was that this should be the home and dwelling place of intellectual culture in its highest and best sense.
"Intellectual culture is an essential element in the life of a people. This building we now dedicate is to be the abiding place, the home of this idea, the temple where these ideas are to be enthroned, and the people are to revere them. In these services we wish to obtain true conceptions of the nature of intellectual culture. We hope to be convicted of our privilege, duty, and responsibility, and at the same time have some glori- ous conceptions of life, and also to kindle aspirations that will always burn.
"This building is to have a vital connection with the life of this people. In it these ideas are to have local habitation and a prominence they have hitherto not possessed.
"I wish to speak of intellectual life. And first, what is in- tellectual life? It is thoughtful life; the individual thinks, and what is it to think? This is not an idle, listless frame of mind. It is not to seize the myths of the hour and accept them as truth. It is not to take floating rumors and mischievous gossip as fact, whether coming from mercenary publishers or the shal- low brains of those who love, feed, and live on sensation. Thought is nothing of this; but it is in the individual putting himself to the severest task, the hardest, toughest kind of work, and holding himself to it, with no let-up till the work is done. The body, the physical being is wondrous. Its func- tions to the one who thinks are an enchanting, rapturous study. But the mind, the intellect, is infinitely more so. The very process of coming to know is wonderfully amazing. How, by the holding of the attention steadily to a subject, the subject will become clear to the individual's perceptions. He has learned it. He knows it, and his very being is thrilled with the con- sciousness of an acquisition, and, more than this, he feels the pulsation of a larger, a higher life. He addresses himself to another subject with a larger hope, a firmer purpose, and more assured anticipations of the luxury he is to experience. For to have once tasted the luxury of real thought is to have found something that nothing could buy and upon which the indi- vidual will set no price. To really think is to enter the unseen, the glorious, the infinite world of truth. It is to feel the con- sciousness of personal power. It is to come to know some- thing of what a world one's own personality is, and the won- drous things faithful thinking can find.
"This structure is one that all must contemplate with pride,
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and which must impress the passing stranger with a deep con- viction that here is an intelligent and public-spirited people. It stands a symbol of simple elegance and chaste beauty. The power of such a building over a population cannot be estimated too highly in calling out and maturing the simple, gentle, lovely graces of character; and when it is remembered that it stands for the intellectual spirit, its power is increased a thousand fold. It is not a place for entertainment and pleasure, further than high thinking is entertainment, and lofty ideas, noble purposes, and earnest seekings for the best in thought and life are a pleasure.
"In setting this building apart as a public library, an insti- tution is opened that proffers great privileges to the present and coming generations. There is a responsibility for the im- provement of these privileges. This is an educational institu- tion. Here the people are to learn to read, and this means very much. Here they are to learn to think, which means much more. Here they are to seek truth, and learn to be true. Here they are to gather up the experience of past ages and from that become wiser than any preceding generation. Here they are to find the best companionship in the thought of the best and loveliest spirits, embalmed in the literature of the past and the present; and they should take these companions with them into all their living.
"The intellectual life takes everything on to a higher plane. It ennobles everything, whether it be of a public or private nature. This spirit quickens the life of the neighbor- hood. It tidies up the surroundings of each habitation, takes care that streets and public ways are in good condition, that vitiating influences are suppressed, and that there shall be everywhere a deepening sense of self-respect. The more thor- ough the intellectual spirit of a community, the more truth- loving will be that community. An ardent passion for the exact sciences, for the truth in history, for the truth in morals will lead to exactness in life and a strict subjection to the laws of God. Let the pure, intellectual spirit control the life, com- pletely possess it, and that life will be truthful. He who is studying for the exact truth will not yield himself to the do- minion of error. The people completely possessed of the in- tellectual spirit will be truthful.
"The intellectual spirit is peaceful; it has no delight in the blare of trumpets, the clangor of martial hosts, and the gory plains of battle. To truly enthrone the intellectual spirit is to introduce an era of peace in the fullest sense.
"This spirit exalts the home; it loves its sacred seclusion, it brings its best and lays it on the altar of home, it imparts and it receives. Home is not true to its ideals without this spirit. This is its crown. This spirit purifies and ennobles life. To be truly intellectual is to be above the sensual and sordid.
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It does not love to loiter at rich banquets, to make the markets a constant study, to have continually in mind the rise and fall of stocks. It is not supremely devoted to material ends, but to the acquisition of wisdom, understanding.
"The intellectual spirit is light-producing; darkness flees before it. It is light in one's own being, light in human so- ciety. As an age is possessed of this spirit, it is an age of light ; as the intellectual leads in the onward movement of society, it is a powerful headlight making distant pathways plain.
"The spirit is hopeful and alluring. Hopeful, for the more it is exercised, the more of power is felt, the more of wealth it reveals. It ever allures to something higher and better, and that yields more satisfaction. It is ever giving the thoughtful, earnest mind glimpses of the great world of fact and visions of the glories of the great temple of truth. The higher it rises, the more overpowering are its visions of glory. This spirit draws to itself the noblest and the best. It should be noticed that, to understand the thought of others, we must first possess the intellectual spirit. We must first have felt the throb of that life in our own and enter into and know that life. To know and enjoy a book we must enter into the labors of the author ; we cannot fully understand it until we have toiled in it and upon it after the manner that he toiled. This becomes enchanting labor when for once the individual realizes his duty and privi- lege and gives himself to it. This is not a labor in a dark mine, with small compensation, with uncongenial fellows, but it is toiling where the light is ever brightening and delightful views ever opening, and where there is none of the usual accompani- ments of the dirt and the dust of toil, none of the sense of per- sonal defilement by engaging in it, or of the degradation of ser- vile labor, but it is through imperative duty, glorious privilege. "I love to forecast the future and contemplate what of real life and true blessing this building and the library will be. I love to think of this day as an era. I love to think of the li- brary shelves as gradually being filled with good books, history, biography, travels, literature, both poetry and prose, encyclo- pedias, popular treatises on science, fiction of the best kind, and everything that will enrich and ennoble human life."
ADDRESS OF MR. JOHN F. FOSTER.
Mayor Woods next called upon former Representative John F. Foster, through whose efforts the gift of the branch library building was received from Andrew Carnegie.
Mr. Foster delivered an informal address, in which he re- counted the efforts, through a long series of years, of many prominent West Somerville citizens to obtain a reading room in their section of the city. The agitation for greater library ac- commodations has been carried on for a long time without any apparent results. It is a matter of great congratulation that
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the hopes of the citizens of West Somerville, in the erection of this building, are now more than realized. Mr. Foster also spoke at some length upon the general subject of reading and education.
ADDRESS OF WILLIAM L. BARBER.
In the absence of Dr. Edward C. Booth, president of the board of trustees, who was detained by illness, William L. Bar- ber, a member of the board, made the following address :-
"Your Honor: In behalf of the board of trustees of the Somerville public library, I assure you it is with great pleasure that they receive in charge this beautiful building and this most welcome addition to our public library service.
"I very much regret that the chairman of our board, Dr. Booth, is unable to be present to-night, and I know that no one is more disappointed at his enforced absence than he himself, as he has for a long time looked forward to this evening with pleasurable anticipation ; and I know that he had something to say that would have been of great interest; but, unfortunately, he is confined to his house this evening by serious illness.
"The board of trustees has for a long time recognized the inadequacy of the library accommodations and facilities in this portion of our city. They have regretted that more of the privileges of our library system could not be more conveniently extended to the residents of West Somerville. They have rec- ognized not only the great needs, but also the immediate neces- sity that some better methods should be provided in order that this large portion of our city, containing so large a number of our citizens, might enjoy those benefits to which they were so justly entitled.
"This desire on the part of the trustees can be clearly evi- denced by referring to the reports of the board of trustees to the city government, which have been made from time to time during the last three or four years, and in which the needs of this particular portion of our city have been clearly set forth, and in which an additional appropriation has been requested in order that these additional benefits might be provided; but, unfortunately, the city government has been unable to make the appropriation for this purpose, and the trustees have been obliged to do the best they could with the means at their dis- posal, and under the agency system, a system never satisfactory when applied to so large a portion of a community as this.
"But now, fortunately, most opportunely, and providen- tially,-and I think that I may rightfully use that word, for cer- tainly none of us a little more than a year ago would have for an instant dreamed that that which has actually come to pass could have been possible,-so I say providentially, this beau- tiful building has come to us, bringing great benefits, great ad- vantages, and also what we believe will prove to be great blessings. -
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"The board of trustees are fully aware of the immense benefits which will accrue from the erection of this library in this portion of our city, and they will do all in their power to promote its growth and extend its usefulness.
"The trustees will, so far as it is possible with the means that shall be placed at their disposal by the city government for the support and maintenance of this building, aid in its good work and development, and they sincerely trust that the ad- vantages and pleasure that will certainly result from its admin- istration will afford not only satisfaction to yourself, your honor, and to the city at large, but especially so to the citizens of West Somerville, for whose particular benefit and conven- ience this building has been erected."
ADDRESS OF DR. HORACE G. WADLIN, Librarian of the Boston Public Library.
"I read not long ago the story of a visit by an American librarian to the Laurentian library in Florence, said to be the oldest library in the world. Near it are the splendid palaces of the old nobility. It is in the shadow of Brunelleschi's dome and of Giotto's Campanile. Its grand hall was designed by Michel Angelo, and is enriched by exquisite carving and beautiful win- dows, the work of unrivaled Florentine artists. It contains marvelous books, written by hand with patient labor before the age of printing; thousands of manuscripts, and, besides these, early printed volumes displaying the revival of interest in classic learning, in the dawn of the Renaissance. There are in the world no more beautiful specimens of the art of the illu- minator or fairer types of the skill of the first printers than it contains, to say nothing of the intellectual value of its treas- ures,-manuscript editions of Dante and Petrarch, the earliest known text of Virgil, the original autograph manuscript of the poems of Michel Angelo himself. As a celebrated French writer, the Vicomte de Vogüé, has said, its librarian 'has under his hand the precious collections of the Medici, beautiful ideas, sumptuously arrayed, texts and picture, manuscripts brought from the Orient, first editions of Italy, Greek books full of grace and wisdom, annotated and surcharged by the most powerful geniuses of the Renaissance.'
"This, I say, is the oldest library in the world. Merely to read of it stirs the imagination profoundly. It preserves in our day the atmosphere of the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent ; and within its walls we seem, for the moment, transported to the age of the Medici. Beyond, in the sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo, the princes of the line sleep silently. Their pomp and glory have departed, while almost unchanged through the cen- turies the library stands, in serene and solemn dignity, the rep- resentative of an alien world.
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"Unless, by coincidence, some other may claim equal honor, we meet to-night to dedicate the newest library in the world, this branch in Somerville. Separated from the first by more than 400 years, it is no less widely separated by differ- ences in aim and purpose. The one represents the aristocracy of art and letters, the other democracy, with wider opportunity and equal privilege. It is the difference between the fifteenth and the twentieth centuries.
"I need not speak of the turmoil into which we are now plunged by the growth of democracy, bringing its immense benefits and its tremendous responsibilities. No man within their influence fails to understand something, at least, of the conflicts which now threaten society, and which the twentieth century is to terminate either for good or ill; conflicts between poverty and wealth, between ignorance and culture, between privilege and restricted opportunity. Through them humanity, in pursuit of an ever-advancing ideal, is either to pass to a higher plane, by orderly progress under law, or is to suffer a violent overturn of all that has thus far been won.
"Nowhere are the lines more sharply drawn or the differ- ent elements more widely separated than in our growing towns and cities ; and nowhere are unity of spirit and devotion to a common ideal more to be desired. We are trying to solve a problem more difficult than ever before proposed,-the unify- ing, in the bonds of a common citizenship, of large masses of people without a common lineage, a common mother tongue, or similar traditions and impulses. And for our success we are relying principally upon the influence of our various civic insti- tutions and the power of an enlightened public opinion.
"The roots of the present are buried in the past, but civili- zation does not remain dormant. It unfolds and broadens under the power of the mysterious forces which promote its growth. It is well for us to clearly perceive their trend. It is not always easy to do this. The petty, the unimportant things are apt to engross us. But beneath these are the permanent forces, perhaps the one permanent force that makes for our na- tional and civic welfare.
"Under its transforming power, men of good will are everywhere seeking, not merely in our country, but elsewhere, peace, brotherhood, and the widening of individual oppor- tunity. The ideals of citizenship are slowly changing. The old barriers that kept men apart have been thrown down. The realization of a new ideal is seen in the movement for arbitration instead of war, in the curtailment of special privi- lege, in the broadening of the public schools, in the extension of municipal functions, in various forms of municipal owner- ship, the provision of parks and libraries, the improvement of tenement quarters in cities, and in the cultivation of beauty as an element in civic life. Thus society is ever moving in the
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direction of broader communal activity; that is, towards the things we all of us may do for each other and for the general welfare. This throws a heavier responsibility upon citizenship. The things we are trying to accomplish by means of our votes and through our various civic activities are constantly becoming more complex and difficult. .
"In the work to which we are committed, the public library is of great assistance, for in books are embodied the wisdom of the past, the aspirations of the present, and the hope for the future. Books are the tools and instruments of knowledge, and under modern conditions have an even more important place than in the past.
"I know that the beneficial influence of much reading has often been disputed, and that now as in the past there are those who distrust the power of the printed page. There are others who would hedge books about with a divinity, and thus pre- vent their general use. The aristocracy of letters, like other aristocracies, is disinclined to surrender its privilege to the many.
"But the fear of the book as a disturber of the peace is in itself a witness to the power of the book, if a good book, in the opposite direction. The use of good books promotes com- munity of action and dissipates ignorance and prejudice, and the larger tolerance of the present as compared with the past is in no small part due to the influence of such books. Books thus become the connecting link between the historic past and the living present, between the world of thought and the world of deed. And their usefulness in this way is open to all through the medium of the public library.
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