Tyler Carnegie Library
Tyler, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Five Tyler women’s clubs, the First Literary Club, Bachelor Maids, Quid Nunc, Sherwood Club and Athenian Club, collectively known as the Federated Women’s Clubs of Tyler, worked for several years to form a series of libraries for this growing east Texas town. In 1902, the Tyler Free Library Board requested funding for a library building from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie agreed to provide $15,000 to the City of Tyler for a library, but stipulated that the city donate the building site and furnishings and maintain the library at a cost of no less than $1500 per year. A lot was purchased at the northwest corner of South College and West Elm, and fundraising efforts throughout the community provided the books, furnishings, landscaping and telephone services for the new library. The Chicago architectural firm of Patton & Miller designed the Italian Renaissance-style building, with R.H. Downing of Tyler as architectural supervisor and D. Mahoney of Waxahachie as builder. The original library housed children’s and adults’ reading rooms, a check-out desk, book shelves and an office on the first floor, while the second floor included an auditorium with stage and two small dressing rooms. For many years this was the only public auditorium in Tyler. A 1936 addition, which doubled the size of the original building, features murals depicting life in east Texas by Texas artist Douthitt Wilson. The building is a two-story masonry structure, built with standard size buff brick and limestone. An overhanging red clay tile hipped roof tops the building in a low profile, and keystones and cut stone embellishments frame all windows and doors. The main entry is topped by a broken pediment and stained glass transom.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Five women's clubs of Tyler, banded together as the Federated Women's Clubs, spent years building toward a public library for their growing East Texas town. In 1902 they secured a $15,000 gift from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and the community raised the funds for books, furnishings, and grounds. The Italian Renaissance–style building that opened held reading rooms below and Tyler's only public auditorium above, later doubled in size and adorned with murals of East Texas life.
Why it matters
The Carnegie libraries were engines of self-improvement across small-town America, and this one shows how organized women turned philanthropy and civic effort into lasting public culture.
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Related people
- · Andrew Carnegie
Themes & tags
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