At the turn of the 20th century, library grants from the foundation Andrew Carnegie had created became readily available for Canadian municipalities. Carnegie believed in the efficacy of public libraries to improve society and in the ability of local governments to better the lives of all residents. In order to qualify for a grant, a municipality submitted a letter outlining its local need for library service. Carnegie required local governments to provide a building site, provide ten percent of the construction cost each year from public taxation for the library’s future operation, and allow free access for residents. These were generous terms, and 125 Canadian cities successfully obtained and built Carnegie libraries.
Brockville was one such community, a small market town in rural Eastern Ontario with a population of 8,940 according to the 1901 Canadian census. After receiving a sizable $17,500 grant in April 1903, the city opened a new building on 13 August 1904 at the corner of Buell and George streets. Fortunately, several images of the library taken in 1906 have been preserved at the Archives of Ontario. These offer some insights into Canadian library features and architecture for smaller towns and cities during the earliest period of the Carnegie library building era.
Before the First World War, the organization of interior space and the interrelationships between staff and patrons underwent a dramatic change. Improved library functions, new programs, and public access arrangements were under active development: children’s services, improved reference service, better classification and cataloging schemes, and open access to collections were all becoming new features. Reliance on long-standing library conventions -- the emphasis on physical custody and storage of books, use of printed catalogues and leaflet updates for holdings, closed stacks, surveillance of public reading rooms, the use of indicators (a British practice) for circulation status in lending departments, and occasional lectures or evening classes for the technical education of working classes (an inheritance from mechanics’ institutes) -- was ebbing. A more “modern” public library as we know it today was emerging that stove to connect people with books and promote an educational ethos to improve its local citizenry. Architectural features of Carnegie exteriors became all too well known for their Beaux-Arts style featuring classical columns, steps, porticos, and domes. It was an exuberant architectural style with classical lines and elements that promoted civic grandeur and acknowledged the intellectual heritage of Graeco-Roman civilization.
Brockville had enjoyed modest library service for several decades. The Brockville Mechanics’ Institute was founded in 1842 and incorporated in 1851. A report from 1858 indicated it held about 800 volumes. It was a membership library requiring an annual subscription. In the early 1880s, the institute fell on hard times and underwent a reorganization to receive provincial grants. Eventually, after 1895, the Brockville town council passed a by-law establishing the Brockville Public Library as a free library open to local residents without charge at the point of access. At this point, the city’s library board and staff were among the most energetic in Ontario. One board member, Edward A. Geiger, a railway agent, attended the American Library Association meeting in Montreal in 1900 and attended a small meeting of leading librarians and trustees that led to the founding of the Ontario Library Association in the following year, 1901. Another member, Judge Herbert S. McDonald, became an OLA councillor. Brockville’s librarian, Carrie Anne Rowe, presented a paper on “Useful Methods for Small Public Libraries” at the second annual meeting in Toronto.
In a 1902 report by Lawrence Burpee, “Modern Public Libraries and their Methods,” Brockville reported holdings of almost 10,000 volumes and a circulation of 40,000 items per year. The library staff numbered three, and holdings were recorded in a card and printed catalogue for the librarian’s use. An “indicator” recorded circulation, usually a board in the lending section indicating by numbers or colours which books were currently lent out or available in the stacks. Indicators were suitable for more limited “closed access” collections but took up considerable space and were giving way to “open access” and book-card charging systems. Due to lack of space, there was no separate children’s section, and an age limit of fourteen was in force.
The library’s architect, Benjamin Dillon, was active in eastern Ontario and had experience with schools, churches, and public buildings in the region. The new Carnegie library featured pressed red brick, grey stone, and a slate roof. It had a corner entrance and a tetraportico supported by four columns topped by a prominent triangular pediment. Keystones decorated the windows. “Public Library Reading Room” was engraved above the entrance. With raised basements, there were the obligatory ten front steps from the sidewalk to reach the main floor. The building measured 61 ft. x 65 ft., just short of 4,000 sq. ft. A central corridor led to a small reference room (17 ft. x 26 ft.), a general reading room (26 ft. x 28 ft), and a circulation desk that separated users from books in the stack area (26 ft. x 28 ft.). Rooms had suspended lighting from high ceilings. Brockville continued to rely on indicators to display the status of stack items., but this type of library device was in declining use in Canada. There was free access to the reference collection housed in glassed-in shelving, but the general circulating collection was only available through staff retrievals. Stairs to the lower level led to a large lecture 47 ft. x 27 ft. hall; however, there was no separate street entrance/exit from the basement, a serious defect considering this large room could hold more than a hundred people. Coal powered the building’s hot water heating during the winter. The building was an early version of Carnegie libraries, built to local standards of the day. There were a few drawbacks in terms of service. It was a compartmentalized plan with a significant portion of space devoted to corridors and stairs. There was no separate children’s department.
Among the members of the library board when the library opened were the Rev. H.H. Bedford-Jones (Chair), R.H. Lindsay (Vice-Chair), Mr. Edward A. Geiger (Secretary-Treasurer), Judge Herbert S. McDonald, Dr. A.J. Macaulay, W.C. McLaren, Mayor Samuel J. Geash, Albert Abbott, and R. Laidlaw. Miss Carrie Row continued as the librarian until she moved to Toronto in 1907.
Brockville’s building made a reorganization to open access or children’s work difficult. A report in 1910 by Patricia Spereman, a library assistant in the Ontario Department of Education who travelled to smaller libraries to introduce children’s services and the Dewey Decimal system, indicates a slow adoption of new methods especially removal of the age limit and open access service.
In this library there are about 13,000 volumes. I gave instructions in the cataloguing and classified all the library, as well as establishing a Children’s Department. The Library Board at that time were not very favourable to having the children become members of the Library, and an age limit existed of 14 years. [I]Gave one “Story Hour,” with an attendance of about 80 children. This Library is very fortunate in having a good librarian [Margaret Stewart], who is not afraid of work. She has undertaken to carry on the work of the Children’s Department as well as finishing the cataloguing, all this without assistance.
Within a few years, the staff shelved and catalogued children’s books separately and held a weekly story hour. Many teachers cooperated by sending their pupils to the library for assistance in writing their compositions. One of the main disadvantages of the original building had been overcome.
Over the following decades Brockville’s population grew slowly -- the 1971 census recorded just under 20,000 people. The Carnegie library also remained substantially unchanged until a small addition was made at that time in 1971. Two decades later, in the mid-1990s, the library was completely remodeled and enlarged with a new entrance adorned with a pediment. This new wing retained many of its original external architectural elements (e.g., symmetry) which were considered heritage features.
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