Photo by Tyler Kirkendall
Most know Andrew Carnegie for his empire-building industrial efforts, yet many aren’t aware of his legacy as a philanthropist – or, at least, the extent of it. He left his fingerprints on countless towns across the nation, including Pickerington
Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland, was 13 when his family immigrated to the United States after the boom of industrialism put a financial strain on his family. They settled among friends and family in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where his father struggled to find work.
Carnegie was always ambitious about reading and education. While wasn’t able to go atttend school, Allegheny citizen Colonel James Anderson offered Carnegie use of his personal library. When the book collection was taken over by Anderson’s estate, a subscription fee was added for working boys, which Carnegie contested by writing letters to the local newspaper. He ultimately won the fight for education.
Often referred to as the Patron Saint of Libraries, Carnegie was committed to helping others access quality education.
As he built his considerable wealth in the steel industry, from the 1880s to 1910s, he devoted more than $40 million (roughly $1.5 billion today) in grants and other resources to fund libraries built in small communities. The first library was built in his birthplace of Dunfermline, Scotland. A total of 2,811 public libraries worldwide were funded by Carnegie, 1,689 in the United States. As of 2014, 750 of those libraries are still serving their communities today.
After famously proclaiming, “The man who dies rich dies in disgrace,” Carnegie distributed $350 million to philanthropic efforts. In addition to building libraries, his fortune was used to establish public-serving institutions and scientific research centers, create retirement pensions for teachers, support world peace and education organizations, and more. These efforts led to many great breakthroughs, including the discovery of insulin.
The Carnegie Corporation’s funds were used for research in the 1960s about how television could educate underprivileged children, which led to the creation of Sesame Street.
Carnegie’s impact has spread wide and far, and continues to benefit communities today. Pickerington can count itself among those communities.
“It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive … as the founding of a public library in a community which is willing to support it as a municipal institution,” Carnegie wrote in his autobiography.
The Library Story
Courtesy of Pickerington-Violet Township Historical Society
Though Pickerington’s Carnegie Library is no longer used for checking books in and out, the Pickerington-Violet Township Historical Society has helped to preserve the integrity of the original structure and story.
In the early 1900s, the Village of Pickerington’s only library was housed in the high school, with its 2,100 books available to the public after the school board organized the Violet Township Library Board. And, they were looking to expand its space and collection, so they applied for a Carnegie grant in 1911. Its proposal would serve the Village of Pickerington’s 310 residents and Violet Township’s 2,000, more than enough to meet the grant’s minimum population of 1,000. A few passionate Pickerington locals traveled to New York to lobby for the library, bolstering their request to Carnegie.
However, the $10,000 grant was suspended due to the stipulation that the village and township maintain a free public library with tax levies. A debate between the village and township continued for three years until they passed a joint resolution to levy yearly taxes to operate the library. Thankfully, the library board was already levying taxes for the library, so no additional levies were needed.
“The citizens fought for the library because it was important to the community,” Historical Society President Peggy Portier says. “They didn’t let it go, and I give them credit for that.”
Did you know?
Carnegie had a niche appreciation for pipe organs and donated about 7,000 to music halls around the United States. The Carnegie Music Hall has an 8,600-pipe organ, and Carnegie had two smaller organs in his homes.
In Ohio, Carnegie financed 104 public libraries with 79 grants worth a total of nearly $3 million, as well as academic libraries at 7 institutions for $368,445.
The Historical Society and Public Library celebrated 100 years of Pickerington’s Carnegie Library in 2016. During construction, the cost excluding land, design and some building amenities amounted to $8,842, equivalent to $334,600 today. Including all costs, however, the project would cost anywhere from $1 million and $1.2 million today.
In 1992, the groundbreaking for the Main Library began, which lead to the Carnegie Building being gifted to the city under the library board’s stipulation that the building would be used for historical and educational purposes. The Historical Society received a 99-year lease for an upper-level museum. The library building’s lower level has housed the children’s library, the audio-visual department and the food pantry before the Historical Society expanded.
Only one employee, Miss Dorothy (Dot) Alexander, worked in the first Pickerington library when it opened in1916. She worked seven days a week as the librarian and janitor. Now, the Pickerington Public Library has two locations, the Main Library and the Sycamore Plaza Library, and has more than 50 active employees and volunteers. The Friends of the Library organization also helps with book sales, donations, sponsorships and the Homework Help Center.
Jane Dimel is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
