TITLE: Carnegie Library

COVERAGE: 1911-1912

DESCRIPTION: Several buildings on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University have been recognized as having significant historical and architectural value. Additional information about these structures can be found in the Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center at Johnson C. Smith University.

TYPE: Photograph  

PHOTOGRAPH DATE: 1912

CREATOR:  Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center

PROCESSED BY: Monika Rivera Rhue

HISTORICAL NOTE: The Carnegie Library building at Johnson C. Smith University is one of the oldest examples of the Neoclassical style that survives locally. The library is also the only surviving Carnegie Library building in Mecklenburg County.

As the President of Biddle University, Reverend Daniel J. Sanders recognized the need for a new library on the campus. Dr. Sanders contacted the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to request support for the construction of a library. The Pittsburgh tycoon responded that he would give the school $12,500 for a new library, if they could raise an equal amount for an endowment to maintain the building. Dr. Sanders died in 1907, before this stipulation could be met. The next president of the university, Dr. Henry L. McCrorey, was determined to complete the fundraising drive for the new library. Once the fundraising drive was completed, the architectural firm of Hunter and Gordon was commissioned to draw up plans and specifications for the new campus building. The firm of Hunter and Gordon was one of the most influential architectural teams in Charlotte in the first quarter of the twentieth century. In April, 1911, the construction contract was awarded to the R. N. Hunter Company of Charlotte.

On November 15, 1911, the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new library took place. Among the papers deposited in the cornerstone was an address by Andrew Carnegie on "The Negro in America," which he delivered before the Philosophical Institution in Edinburgh, Scotland on October 16, 1907.

The Carnegie Library was ready to be dedicated in less than a year. By the fall term of 1912, the library was open and ready for use. On the lower level, there was a lecture room and storage space. The main floor had sixteen-foot ceilings, and included a reading room, a boardroom and a stack room. This building served as the university’s library from 1912 until 1969. The exterior of the building is in its original condition. However, the interior has been completely renovated.

COPYRIGHT: Any display, publication, or public use, must credit the Inez Moore Parker Archives and Research Center at Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Materials on this website have been made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For these purposes, you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) materials from this web site without prior permission, with the condition that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies. 

You must contact the Archives and Research Center at archives@jcsu.edu for permission to use materials from this web site for commercial products, publications, broadcasts, mirroring, or any other purpose that is not considered “fair use.”

SITE CREATION DATE: March 30, 2003