Three 1950s Prairie University Libraries: Rutherford, Dafoe, and Murray Memorial

Before the Second World War, there was only one standalone university library building in the Canadian west. The University of British Columbia library opened in 1925 on the Point Grey campus in Vancouver under the direction of John Ridington. However, with the post-1945 increase in student numbers, which included returning war veterans, overcrowding in three Prairie universities led to development plans that included the transfer and consolidation of library collections from various academic buildings into a separate, central library structure. University collections had grown incrementally across each campus, and at mid-century, Manitoba held almost 250,000 volumes, Saskatchewan about 125,000, and Alberta almost 150,000. These were relatively large holdings in a Canadian context and were comparable to academic libraries of a similar size in Ontario, such as Queen’s or Western, which had erected buildings in the interwar years, the Douglas (1924) and Lawson (1934) libraries. With the increasing pressure to develop research collections and upgrade library operations, the 1950s proved to be a busy decade for university construction across Canada marked by extensions to existing libraries and the opening of new ones.

 

Rutherford Library, University of Alberta, 1951

Rutherford Library, University of Alberta, 1951

Rutherford Library at the University of Alberta opened on May 15, 1951, after delays in planning and shortages of construction materials. The library was named after the former Premier of Alberta, Alexander Cameron Rutherford. It was designed by the firm Mathers and Haldenby of Toronto incorporating modified elements of the English Renaissance (also known as Georgian Revival) architectural style. This style is characterized by symmetrical lines, proportion, panel ceilings, and detailing such as window pediments, quoins, and elegant furnished interiors. Rutherford was a handsome four-storey structure of rose-colored brick with white limestone trim. The library’s exterior styling blended seamlessly with older campus buildings, which featured the Collegiate Gothic style.

 

The chief librarian, Marjorie Sherlock (1945–55), who actively assisted with its planning, rightfully declared, “The Rutherford Library is a beautiful building.” Indeed, Rutherford was an impressive and inviting environment for students and staff alike. The walls of the entrance halls and the main staircases were faced with polished Tyndall limestone from Manitoba and Italian marble. The staircases featured marble treads and risers, accompanied by stair rails and banisters of bronze. Painting, sculpture and art objects were an integral part of the building. The two-storey main reading room displayed oak panelling, Empire Green walls, dark walnut furniture, and red leather chairs. Its entrance was dominated by an extensive mural by Henry G. Glyde depicting his personal interpretation of Alberta’s early ‘pioneer’ colonial history near Fort Edmonton, which critics now consider demeaning in its depiction of relations between Indigenous peoples, settlers, and traders.

 

Henry George Glyde mural, Alberta History, 1951

Although Rutherford’s architectural style and interior decoration were retrospective, the design plans featured a relatively functional layout on each floor with separate areas and some modern features, such as an electric elevator that delivered books from the closed stacks to the main circulation desk for users. The entire design allowed for the centralization of collections, such as the law library on the first floor, and separate divisions for library services: acquisitions, cataloguing, circulation control, and reference service. Marjorie Sherlock planned to reorganize the library classification using the Library of Congress system, and, for this purpose, she hired Bruce Braden Peel, who became the chief librarian after her marriage and retirement in 1955.

The chief librarian and university administrators were justly proud of the new library, which cost approximately $2,000,000 to provide about 85,000 sq. ft. on four floors. The lower level housed space for the university extension library, a reading room for applied science students, a projection room, a smoking room, and areas for staff. On the ground floor, there was a law library, a reserve reading room for 120 readers, and closed reserve stacks for about 10,000 volumes for study purposes. A reading room for medical students and a staff area for processing periodicals occupied the rest of the main floor space. The second floor offered a main reading room, seating for 240 students, and a small reference desk. This floor also housed the library catalogue and periodical collection. Because the main library stack areas were only open to teaching staff, graduate and honours students, requested books by the majority of users were issued in the central area at the main circulation desk. The top floor was primarily devoted to seminar and conference rooms.

Rutherford Library main delivery desk, second floor, c. 1951

Rutherford was an outstanding addition to the University of Alberta campus. But, like all libraries, over time, increasing collections, staffing, and university enrollment led to a decision about its future. Library expansion was required in Alberta, but its growth necessitated the construction of a new library, the D.E. Cameron Library, which opened in 1964. Rutherford was reorganized to provide a larger law library on the upper floor, an undergraduate library on the second floor, and more spaces for special collections, rare books, and government documents. There were further changes, of course, notably the addition of a free-standing library built adjacent to it in 1973. Half a century later, in 2025, a prominent feature of ‘Rutherford South’ (as the old library came to be known) is the Bruce Peel Special Collections. The Rutherford Library combined an engaging elegance with a utilitarian arrangement of rooms, enduring qualities which continue to fulfill the needs of Alberta’s students to this day.

 University of Manitoba Library, 1953, the Elizabeth Dafoe Library

 

University of Manitoba Library, 1950s

When the University of Manitoba’s new campus library officially opened on September 26, 1953, it announced the arrival of Modernist architectural styling and functional planning for university libraries on the prairies. In place of the traditional collegiate-style campus buildings, the library featured an attractive exterior of Tyndall Stone, a cream coloured limestone from a Manitoba quarry, and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass. Elizabeth Dafoe, the chief librarian (1937–60), helped oversee the design and construction of the new library. When she wrote about plans for the library several years later, in 1959, she said: “Every library, however, has two large areas of service: first, Public Service (Circulation and Reference), and second, Technical Service (the acquisition and preparation of materials for use).” She believed the effectiveness of the first was dependent to a considerable degree on the efficiency of the second.

 

Further, “Because the funds for our disposal were insufficient to erect a building ample enough to serve the university adequately for many years to come, we knew that we must have as few permanent partitions as possible and that not only the stack rooms but other areas as well must be as flexible as seemed practicable. Free-standing stacks and stack partitions between some rooms seemed to be the answer.” Indeed, the new library, costing about $900,000, was not only economically practicable but also consolidated smaller collections from across the university, thus allowing for better student and faculty use. The south end of the building provided an exhibition space and a small 80-seat theatre for films. 

The Buffalo Hunt by William A. McCloy, 1953

The design architect for the library was David F. Thordarson, a young Manitoba graduate (1949) with a BA in Architecture.  He had joined the Winnipeg firm, Green Blankstein Russell, which oversaw completion of the building and its Modernist rectilinear styling. The building prioritized functionality over ornamentation by utilizing glass partitions to accentuate the open floor plans and large windows that revealed interior functions from the outside. The entrance floor located at ground level featured an open lobby, a readers’ lounge, an exhibition room, a theatre, a projection room, and a small kitchen for social events. One notable feature, a colourful, dreamlike mural by William Ashbly McCloy, was designed to reside at the front entrance: it depicted three flying bison, one of which was the Great Bull Bison with his head turned back to a flying hunter who was in rapid pursuit in the sky over the Red River.

The library proper spanned three floors (one below the entrance level) with separate areas for technical services, periodicals, and a bibliography room, as well as the special Icelandic collection with adjoining stack rooms. In sum, the small library was both graceful and functional, and readily accessible in the centre of campus. The main circulation desk was on the second floor, with the reserve reference desk downstairs. Honours students and graduates were assigned carrels on each of the three floors of stacks. Faculty researchers were provided with sixteen larger cubicles in a separate room. Library shelving held 160,000 volumes with special sections for maps, the valuable Icelandic collection and periodicals. Rare books were assigned their own room.

In 1961, in recognition of Elizabeth Dafoe’s long tenure, the library was renamed in her honour. As student numbers grew throughout the sixties, the library became overcrowded. Plans were made to enlarge it. Finally, after a quarter century, in 1978, an addition by Green Blankenstein Russell was made to the northwest section of the library.  

Murray Memorial Library, University of Saskatchewan, 1956

 

The third Prairie library, the Murray Memorial Library, named after the University's first president, Walter C. Murray, was built between 1954–56 at a cost of approximately $1,500,000, including furnishings and equipment. When it officially opened on November 30, 1956, the University President, Walter P. Thompson, declared it was “Another dream come true.” The Murray Library was a central building designed to house many university collections previously dispersed among six branch libraries. The basic open design brought books and readers together in a close relationship.

 

Murray Memorial Library, Nov. 1956

The library was well-planned in the Mid-Century Modern architectural style by the architect, Henry Kenneth Black, from Regina, and the librarian David C. Appelt, a native New Zealander who had become the head librarian in 1946. Kiyoshi Izumi, a young aspiring architect, served as the Ken Black’s representative and Keyes Metcalf, Director of University Libraries at Harvard, was a consultant on the project. Murray Memorial displayed an austere and unimposing rectangular exterior with a flat roof, uniform fenestration, and entry at grade level. Building materials included structural steel or reinforced concrete, granite at the entrance and Tyndall stone as a wall cladding and window trim.

It was also an unabashed modular building, displaying a significant interior change in planning for Canadian academic libraries. In modular planning the floor space is divided into equal rectangles: the Murray library was designed on 4 ft. x 6 in. scheme to accommodate its approximately 100,000 sq. ft. on four floors. This scheme enabled adequate floor-loading capacities, uniform ceiling heights, and provided for mechanical and electrical systems for air and lighting. Although the new building style lacked visual appeal, indeed it could be said to be boring, both H.K. Black and D.C. Appelt recognized that the international-style structure was well-suited to functional library requirements, future reorganization, and expansion. It was economical too.

Early decisions made in the planning stage determined the layout for Murray Memorial:
1. It would have open stack access with circulation control at the building exit.
2. Closed reserve collections would continue.
3. There would be no subject divisions.
4. Branch libraries would continue on a reduced scale. Research materials (except for Medicine) would be in the main library.
5. The Provincial Saskatchewan Archives would be located on the lower level.
6. There would be temporary space for the College of Law and the Law Library on the second floor.

Murray Memorial Library first floor plan, entrance at right

 

 

On the first floor, the circulation desk was situated at the entrance/exit with the catalogue adjacent to it. Further into the interior was a large, readily accessible reference room which featured a service desk that provided improved assistance. Book stacks were located on the second and third floors. The reserve reading room was on the lower level. The Murray Memorial Library served the university for two decades before undergoing extensive renovation in the 1970s during which a six-floor south wing was added to accommodate growth.

 

Seven decades later, in the 21st century ‘information age’ and the era of the ‘digital library,’ the services of the Rutherford, Dafoe, and Murray libraries continue to satisfy campus needs and exemplify the diverse choices librarians and architects made in the 1950s to address contemporary issues with flexible building designs that successfully transitioned to the future.

 

Further Reading:

 

My earlier blog on Elizabeth Dafoe is at this link.

Elizabeth Dafoe, “A University Library [Manitoba].” Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada 36, no. 4 (1959): 106. 

Bruce Braden Peel’s 1979 history of the University of Alberta is available at the Internet Archive.

Edith Park, “The Rutherford Library” 1951 alumni history at the University of Alberta.

David Appelt’s report on planning for the Murray Memorial Library: “University of Saskatchewan Library, Saskatoon,” is in Proceedings of the Meetings at Midwinter ALA Conference, Chicago, Illinois, February 1 and 2, 1953, ed. by Donald C. Davidson. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1953, pp. 8–18. 

From Sigmund Samuel to the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto, 1954–1973

Over the course of twenty years, in the 1950s and 1960s, libraries at the University of Toronto continued to expand and improve as they became collectively the most extensive university holdings in Canada. The library system, under the leadership of Robert Blackburn, also refined its philosophy concerning the necessity for a centralized research collection that could serve the needs of graduate studies. During this period, the architectural styles of the Modern Movement and new technologies of construction utilizing steel, glass, and concrete also broke with past practices. In 1954, the Sigmund Samuel Library (SSL) was constructed using Queenston limestone adjacent to the original library building with the Samuel family crest above the entrance. The coat of arms in stained glass above the entrance had been granted to the Samuel family by Oliver Cromwell in 1670. When the John P. Robarts Research Library was completed in 1973, the humanities and social science collection was transferred to the new building. The original building became the Science and Medicine Library and host of Canada’s largest academic science and medicine library.

If the sleek rectilinear lines, large airy windows, open main floor plan, and simple functionality of the International Style in architecture exhibited by the SSL comforted people along with Samuel family coat of arms over the doorway, the opposite was true when the massive 14-storey John P. Robarts Research Library with two basement levels opened at 130 St. George Street. At the time, it was about one million sq. ft. in size and the largest academic library building in the world. It could accommodate four thousand users and held just under three million volumes. While its scale was breathtaking, its poured concrete Brutalist style, provincial funding, and original plans for restricted stack access provoked controversy before and after the opening of ‘Fort Book.’

The Sigmund Samuel Library, 1953–54

Sigmund Samuel wing, c.1955

When Toronto’s first standalone Romanesque style University Library opened in 1892, it was designed to seat 200 readers and accommodate 120,000 books. It offered reference for students and lending privileges for faculty. Over decades, it became crowded, and by the late 1920s, the chief librarian, W. Stewart Wallace, planned for an extension; however, depression era financial difficulties and the Second World War halted progress. As collections grew, the smaller college libraries slowly expanded due to limited space in the central library. Finally, in 1951, Sigmund Samuel, a prominent Toronto business leader and philanthropist, promised a donation of $500,000 towards construction of a $3,000,000 extension. Sigmund was the son of Lewis Samuel, a very early Jewish immigrant to Canada from England. Sigmund was born in Toronto in 1867 and the family was quite prominent both in the Jewish community and the city of Toronto. His father, Lewis, was President of the Toronto  Mechanics’ Institute in 1879.

Construction on the new wing began in late 1953. This addition became an attractive five-storey ‘wing’ extension, a popular concept in academic library buildings after WWII. The circulation, reference, and periodicals departments were on the main floor with the humanities and social sciences book stacks in the three basement levels. The acquisitions and cataloguing departments were located on the second above ground floor. When W.S. Wallace decided to retire in spring 1954, the reserve book room inside the SSL was renamed in his honour and Alice Moulton, an experienced circulation librarian, placed in charge. A formal opening took place on November 26, 1954, with Sigmund Samuel and the architect Alvan Mathers of Mathers & Haldenby on hand in recognition of their contributions to the much needed project.

Sigmund Samuel and Alvan
Mathers at the opening

The next day, a colloquium on the future prospects of research libraries was held featuring W.S. Wallace, William Kaye Lamb, and notable librarians from the United States. A pamphlet, The Research Library, reporting the proceedings was published by the Canadian Library Association in 1955. The colloquium stressed the need to organize specialized collections and develop effective systems of nationwide cooperation, especially by the nascent National Library. Generally, students welcomed the new facility. The Varsity (March 9, 1955) reported, “The new library has many popular features: the open-shelf system, the attractive appearance, the good lighting (which incidentally promotes social life, as you can now see the student across the table from you). There is still some dissatisfaction, however — students have been petitioning to have closing time extended from 10.00 to 11.00.” The large windows that allowed ample lighting were particularly popular. The SSL was designed to make about one million volumes available for users. It also became a vital social centre for seminars, talks, receptions, student sales, elections, a faculty reading area, a staff room, and even a small smoking room. The Stewart Wallace Room was organized to hold 20,000 volumes and accommodated 380 users. It was often filled to capacity at critical times for student paper deadlines or examinations. When its open shelves were closed due to $8,000 book theft reported by the Globe and Mail on December 9, 1959 (“Students Petition for Return of Open-Shelf Library”), leaving students to fill in request slips to obtain books, they unsuccessfully petitioned the library to rescind its policy. However, unrest continued until 1961, when they were permitted access if they attended an instructional session.

Sigmund Samuel Library first floor plan

Robert Blackburn’s history, Evolution of the Heart (1989), provides a chapter on the genesis, design phase, and construction of the SSL. Although the extension provided necessary relief for collections and reader space, in fact, after a few years, the new wing itself became crowded. Administrators realized larger quarters would be necessary. The only major campus library built after the SSL was the E.J. Pratt Library at Victoria College, which opened in 1961. It was a plain, two-storey, granite-clad edifice with open stacks and extensive windows allowing students to view attractive landscaping. Consequently, planning for this necessity began in the late 1950s, especially when Claude T. Bissell, a promoter of libraries, became President of the University in 1958. He quickly formed an advisory committee for future library services and buildings chaired by Roland McLaughlin to recommend new directions for the entire university library system.

The McLaughlin Committee report issued in January 1959. It recommended that a policy of centralization of departmental libraries be pursued to coordinate services, that the Library of Congress classification be adopted, that a union catalogue of holdings be established, and that 75,000 sq. ft. be added to the present SSL and another 82,700 square feet erected on the site of the Engineering Building on King’s College Circle. For future expansion, an additional 60,000 sq. ft. would be necessary. With the study completed, another committee was established to report on a new central facility, but not until 1965, with the full support of Claude Bissell, were plans recommended by the committee approved. There was an air of optimism about the project. When Claude Bissell spoke at the annual meeting of the Canadian Library Association held in Toronto in June 1965, he articulated the role of the projected research library: “The profile of the new research library in the university is that of an active scholarly headquarters with a close working relationship between professional supervisors and users. It will be a much more lively, much more heavily populated building than the old library.” His focus was upon the humanities and social sciences and a new library of about 500,000 sq. ft. that the second committee had settled on. In the intervening five years, it was assumed that resources would be moved from the crowded SSL to the new central library. The SSL would continue with a duplicate collection for undergraduates and they would not have direct access to the collections of the new building. During the time the second committee did its work, important issues were raised in a national study by Edwin Williams, Resources of Canadian University Libraries. It reported the need for increased financial support for research collections, especially at the graduate level. Also, the block of land at the corner of St. George and Harbord Streets was chosen as a new site for a grand central library. In 1966, after publication of the Spinks Report on the development of graduate education in Ontario, the Provincial government indicated that it could help finance the research library project. This report recommended that Toronto be designated as the major provincial resource centre and its holdings be available to all faculty and qualified graduate students. As such, the Province should support Toronto’s expansion to assume these new responsibilities.

The John P. Robarts Research Library, 1968–73

 

Robarts Library with the Rare Book wing, 1974

With the University’s acceptance of the 1965 report, serious design planning and preliminary engineering reports began and were finished in early 1967. A triangular building with fourteen levels above ground and two below was proposed. The main service floor was situated on the fourth level with circulation to closed stacks, reference, a public catalogue, and periodicals reading area. Access to two smaller wings, one for rare books and one for the library school, allowed access to these satellite areas. The budget had ballooned to just under $42 million, a phenomenal amount for a Canadian university library devoted to the humanities and social sciences, but the Ontario government authorized $40 million in support, which cleared the way for construction to begin at the end of 1968. In July 1971, the University Board of Governors named the main library in honour of John Parmenter Robarts, the seventeenth Premier of Ontario, 1961–71. The eight-storey 100,000 sq. ft. wing for the School of Library Science was the first completed section of the library complex and was occupied in June 1971. It was renamed the Claude T. Bissell building in 1984, which became the home to the Faculty of Information. The rare book wing, which featured a warm, inviting interior, opened in December 1972 and was named the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library in honour of Thomas Fisher, whose grandsons donated valuable collections of Shakespeare and other authors to the university library. Selected campus collections, staff, and services moved into the Robarts Library during the first part of 1973. The library quietly opened in July. Alice Moulton, who had become head of circulation of the library system in the 1960s, supervised the move of books from the SSL to the new building.

Thomas Fisher Rare Books, c. 1975

The monumental scale of the concrete complex dwarfed previous library quarters and offered the prospect of vastly better quality and quantity of services. But it did not come without controversy. The initial decision to limit access to collections for undergraduates, except for fourth-year students, provoked widespread student protests at a time when the concepts of ‘student power’ and ‘stakeholders’ were prompting student activism. In early March 1972, the University Senate rejected student appeals to allow all students and the public complete access to the building, its services and collections. Shortly afterwards, police removed and arrested 18 people, mainly students, at a sit-in in Simcoe Hall on King’s College Circle, a short distance from the SSL. A lengthy Globe and Mail article on March 13 called attention to the issues: “Brutal tactics claimed: 18 charged as police end sit-in over U of T library.” By the end of March, limited access was struck down: the Senate proposed that all University members would be eligible to use the Robarts Library and apply for entry to the book stacks. In 1972, there were more than 55,000 thousand potential users. Later, when a newly structured Governing Council officially came into being in July 1972 to replace the previous Board of Governors and University Senate, it adopted this principle.

Harsh commentary turned to the monumental design of Robarts, a feature many early century Carnegie libraries had suffered with for decades. Although the use of unpainted concrete in large buildings was not unusual in Canada in this period, the magnitude of Robarts startled many observers. In “Fort Book: It’s 14 storeys of literary intimidation,” an article in the Toronto Star on Sept 28, 1974, the journalist Robert Fulford declared, “the John P. Robarts Research Library is just about the most intimidating building ever devised by the mind of man.” Many people—architects, passersby, and students— hated the library. Nonetheless, Fulford had to admit it worked with the proviso,

But the fact is that since the Robarts opened, library use on campus—borrowing, reading in the library, etc.—has increased almost 100 per cent. This means that the old facilities of the Sigmund Samuel Library were overcrowded, that new facilities were needed, and that to some extent Robarts has filled the need. Students may write nasty articles about it in The Varsity, the student daily, but they use it.

One of the more loquacious student critics of The Varsity was Linda McQuiag, who opined in its pages from time to time. On November 26, 1972 (“Take a Good Look before Books Go”), she reported that the book move from the SSL to Robarts would likely disenfranchise undergrads who would be denied access to resources they previously had. She also raised the issue of the enormous percentage of tax funding by Ontario taxpayers and the use of it by researchers from other universities. Later, she revisited funding issues when she reported in the Globe and Mail on July 10, 1973 (“Robarts Library: lavish but book-poor”) about library budget woes, inflation, and expenditures reductions that might have been trimmed costs during the construction stage, such as posh lounges in the library science wing or the front tower that made the entire structure look like a turkey (or peacock) from the Harbord Street side. Perhaps there was no formal opening of Robarts with ribbon cutting, etc., because of the controversies surrounding the library structure, its use, and its purpose.

From Sigmund Samuel to Robarts

In retrospect, the two libraries reflected the changing fortunes of 20th century Canadian post-secondary education and the growth of Toronto. The SSL was built when universities developed with modest financial revenues and smaller enrollments that denied the bold planning strokes that Robarts ostentatiously displayed. The dramatic expansion of universities and new colleges in the 1960s was due to a vast infusion of federal and provincial funding necessary to meet rapidly increasing student numbers and to develop comprehensive research resources. The Sigmund Samuel and Robarts libraries celebrated the humanities and social sciences, but gradually, the SSL and its aged partner, the University Library of 1892, transitioned to a science and health complex sketchily outlined in the McLaughlin report. Eventually, in 1997, these two libraries were renamed the Gerstein Science Information Centre to denote a large donation from the Frank Gerstein Charitable Foundation. The SSL undergraduate humanities and social sciences materials were integrated into other campus library collections, and the reading areas expanded to accommodate science students and faculty. The Wallace Room continued with study carrels, tables for reading, and computer work stations. The Robarts Library grew in stature and became a world-class research institution.

As the city of Toronto grew from a regional hub to Canada’s metropolitan centre, the Brutalist Style was often evident in public buildings. The striking impression of this style symbolized a utilitarian approach to building, permanence, and a new expressive form for public gatherings. Concrete was a reliable, economical material used in other ambitious contemporary buildings which featured Brutalist elements, such as the York University central Scott Library (opened in 1971), Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel (opened 1972), and the CN Tower (opened 1976). Today, many people still consider the Robarts complex ugly, except for a short time in spring when the blossoms of its cherry trees planted in 2005 are in season.

A University of Toronto celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Robarts is at this link.

My blog on the reports by Edwin Williams and Robert B. Downs is at this link.

A short biography of Alice Moulton is at the Ex Libris Association at this link. 

A biography of Robert H. Blackburn is at the Ex Libris Association at this link.

William Austin Mahoney: A Prolific Canadian Carnegie Library Architect

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Andrew Carnegie began dispensing grants to Ontario libraries. Many ambitious cities and towns submitted a request for assistance. One important requisite that Carnegie demanded was that the library be “free” that is, open at the point of entry free of charge—there would no longer be a subscription for membership. This condition would make it eligible for a specific amount from its municipality according to Ontario’s public library legislation. More than a hundred communities followed through and received grants.

One architect from Guelph, Ontario, William A. Mahoney (born 16 Sept. 1872 and died 13 Oct. 1952) designed fifteen buildings across the province. This short history looks at Mahoney’s buildings and their subsequent development until the period of the Second World War, especially in connection with Angus Mowat, who inspected most of Mahoney’s buildings and reported on their status about a quarter-century after they originally opened. There were examples of progressive and struggling libraries in Mahoney’s grouping prior to 1945.

William Mahoney’s contribution to the Carnegie architectural history of Canadian libraries was large in number but small in terms of interior design and exterior features. His preference for simple, square, classical buildings with raised first floors requiring staired entrances, and open floor plans suited the building period and size of grants that the Carnegie corporation favoured for smaller towns across Canada, especially in Ontario. For his exteriors he followed the neoclassical style associated with the École des Beaux Arts in Paris which was in vogue across North America when he opened his office in Guelph. There were two basic exterior types of neoclassical style: a columned temple entrance with a triangular pedimented roof or a columned arch entrance divided into one or more bays which supported the roof line. In the interiors there were high ceilings, wooden shelving and chairs, oak floors, stained glass in a few windows, busts of famous literary figures, and fireplaces along with radiators to provide heating. Separate reading rooms for women and men were not uncommon. Spacing and reading for children for limited.

For the most part, Mahoney’s ideas were in accord with changing principles for library buildings. In the leaflet published in 1910, Notes on the Erection of Library B[u]ildings, James Bertram, the secretary of the Carnegie Corporation, introduced the open library concept wishing to receive a promise of funding. The Notes were intended for buildings in small communities or city branches. Bertram stressed simplicity: rectangular, one-storey buildings, undivided rooms, low ceilings, few restrictions separating readers from books, and unpretentious exteriors. Bertram personally inspected potential designs for libraries before authorizing funding. Fortunately, Mahoney’s plans usually passed muster. Mahoney continued a successful practice, building schools and commercial buildings for many years until his retirement. Seven of his buildings continue in use as libraries in 2023.

A testament to Mahoney's design concepts came from Angus Mowat, the Ontario Inspector of Public Libraries from 1937 to 1960, about thirty years after the libraries opened. The Inspector found most of Mahoney's libraries were still generally community assets, although crowded and in need of extensions or interior reorganization. One suggestion, used in a number of Carnegie buildings in the following decades, was to house children's sections in basement rooms that had being planned for other uses. Another testament to William Mahoneys success as an architect is that many of his buildings remain in use more than a century after their construction, surely a notable achievement.

My PowerPoint presentation was originally planned for the Port Hope Public Library in 2023, but due to illness I was unable to attend and I have reproduced it here in JPEG format.

A complete listing of William Mahoney’s buildings is at the website, Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada 1800–1950.

 Some of my earlier blogs on Carnegie library buildings:

Brantford, 1904

Brockville, 1904

Photo Essay on Ontario's Edwardian Libraries (1989) 

More Carnegie library buildings in Ontario are available at my previous website, Libraries Today, from the 1990s — The Ontario Library Photo Gallery — stored on the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive.

My chapter on Carnegie Philanthropy (pp. 165–203) appears in Free Books for All: The Public Library Movement in Ontario, 1850–1930 (1994) which is available on the Internet Archive.

 

 

Ontario Centennial Libraries Program, 1966—1967

     In 1961 the National Centennial Act established a federal Centennial Commission reporting to Parliament. This Commission intended to celebrate Canada’s birthday by planning and assisting projects across the country. Provincial departments helped coordinate finances with local groups and municipalities. In all, the total expenditure under various grant programs for all governments reached $200 million for about 2,500 projects, including the building of Confederation Memorial Centres, such as the one in Charlottetown which included a library. In Ontario, in 1965, the Department of Tourism established a Centennial Planning Branch to help plan and finance celebrations such as armed forces ceremonials, canoe pageants, the Confederation and train caravans, aboriginal events, sports events, municipal projects, and Queen’s Park celebrations. Approved local projects received funding from the federal government normally based on one dollar per capita to a maximum of one-third of the total cost. Provinces usually matched the federal amount, and municipalities funded the balance. Some new regional library co-operatives also provided funds for a few projects, notably Teck Township, where library facilities were the primary focus. Eventually, Ontario municipal projects totalled approximately $7 million; more than seventy-five libraries qualified for funding in the building category.

Ontario Centennial Library Projects 1966–67    

About five percent of the total Canadian projects were library-related (144). Ontario communities accounted for slightly more than half of all Canadian library buildings. The most notable project, the Public Archives and National Library, which opened on 20 June 1967, fulfilled a need expressed since the beginning of the century. The Canadian Library Association received $12,000 to microfilm Canadian newspapers in the Confederation period, 1862–1873; these microfilms were subsequently used across the country in many research projects. In Ontario, few major cities choose to erect or renovate libraries because large buildings were more complex to plan and finance during the Commission’s short lifespan. In Canada, Edmonton’s towering $4,000,000 centennial central library was a remarkable example of municipal funding for library services.

Sault Ste. Marie Centennial Library, 1967

      In Ontario, only Sault Ste. Marie ($776,000), Chatham ($515,000), and Mimico ($300,000) were expensively conceived projects. The Sault Ste. Marie library’s lower level included space for a “Centennial Room” for lectures and exhibits. The vast majority of libraries were projected to be under $100,000 due to the per capita funding formula. Smaller municipalities sometimes entered into joint projects with their neighbours to combine their financial resources. One municipality, suburban Toronto Township, built three smaller libraries (3,000 sq. ft. each) that opened on the same day in October 1967—Malton, Lakeview, and Clarkson-Lorne Park.

Mimico Centennial Library, 1966

      The Centennial Commission was not concerned with library architectural features or functional requirements of libraries. By now, the excesses of the Carnegie era were well known: some communities—Cornwall (1956), Sarnia (1960), and Guelph (1964)—had simply demolished their buildings and rebuilt without regard to heritage considerations. Chatham, opened on 15 November 1967, followed the same process, moving to the Thames Theatre Art Gallery while demolition of the Carnegie proceeded. Sault Ste. Marie also razed its Carnegie building to make way for Sixties-style progress. 

   In keeping with the limited funds available on a per capita basis, the general architectural style of the vast majority of smaller Centennial libraries might be described as “commercial-vernacular” with the following usual characteristics:

▪ most new buildings were 4,000 – 8,000 sq. ft. in size and based on a simple rectangular or box plan, sometimes allowing for future expansion;
▪ modernist style exteriors were rectilinear in form with plain surfaces, featuring extensive use of glass, and horizontal roof lines;
▪ buildings had approachable “street-level” entrances often with adjoining parking;
▪ interior “open plan” mix of stacking, fluorescent lightening, and public space provided more convenient, individual study areas, larger lounge areas for reading, and improved interface with staff and book collections;
▪ structural elements featured concrete, glass, and steel that revealed skeleton-frame structure;
▪ lighting took on more importance with visible fluorescent and long, metal window mullions providing strength in single-storey buildings and allowing more interior daylight to make study and programming pleasant for users;
▪ in larger libraries, modular column squares made load-bearing and functionality simpler to plan for future redesign needs;
▪ use of vernacular, localized style combined with contemporary wood-steel furnishings created attractive, simplified library spaces.
The majority of Centennial libraries and extensions did not continue the monumental traditional style of the Carnegie era. Instead, the ideal, “form follows function,” was adhered to even if contemporary additions clashed dramatically with the older Carnegie style, as in Fort Frances. Many additions simply alleviated space problems, thereby limiting their scope and style. Renovated buildings, such as a service station at Sioux Lookout, did not present opportunities for architectural statements.

Streetsville Centennial Library, 1967

    The architectural qualities of Centennial libraries differed tremendously. Because of their size and community location Centennial libraries escaped the major elements of the Brutalist style, so evident in Ontario’s 1969 Centennial Museum of Science and Technology. One library, Mimico, opened in November 1966, received a Massey Medal for Architecture for its architect, Philip R. Brook. It was a spacious 18,000 sq. ft. building with a capacity of 60,000 books and an auditorium for 250 people. Streetsville, opened in November 1967 by the Premier, William Davis, reflected a contemporary cubic style with a capacity for 20,000 volumes  within 6,500 sq. ft. Larger libraries, such as Oakville, formed part of a civic complex and combined with art gallery space to satisfy municipal needs. The complex was on three levels: a lower area for technical services, main floor children’s library, and upper level (actually at street level) included adult services and the art gallery.

Nepean Centennial Library, 1967

      Some structures were built with an eye for successful extensions, such as Fort Erie. Others, such as Nepean Township’s modular octagon at Bells Corners, were too small at just under 2,000 sq. ft. to cope with population growth. Nepean was required to add later modular additions in 1970 and 1974. A few county library systems built better accommodations. The Middlesex library included a local branch for Arva residents as well as storage and garage to organize transport of books to other county branches via bookmobile—there was14,000 sq. ft. on one level. Several, notably Cornwall’s Centennial Simon Fraser wing, opened by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in July 1967, were successful additions to existing buildings.

     Very little critical study of Centennial library building projects exists, Bracebridge being a noteworthy exception. Its 1908 Carnegie, of course, suffered space constraints before the trustees and town council decided to renovate the basement for a children’s library and add a small extension for a separate entrance. The project cost was just less than $20,000; it included renovation upgrades in the main building and a “centennial wing” which was really “just a concrete-block bunker” that blemished the heritage aspects of the original Carnegie design. Nonetheless, speeches at an official ceremony on 13 May 1967 deemed the town’s decision to be a wise investment in children’s education.

     Indeed, the Centennial helped enhance the library’s public image about an expanded range of services, for example, auditoriums for programs, meetings, and performances; exhibit areas for art; and accommodation for audio-visual departments. These advantages reinforced the library’s position as an educational and recreational locus for community activity. Improved library facilities were part of a rapid increase in library usage across Ontario: in 1961 libraries served approx. 4.4 million and by 1971 6.9 million, a 56% increase — the greatest single decade increase in Ontario library history. Across the province, Centennial libraries were a visible symbol of local pride, the growth of Canadian identity, the democratization of culture, and the utility of shared federal-provincial programs for the public benefit. In some ways, Centennial libraries emulated the local self-help philosophy and enthusiasm for library building inspired by Andrew Carnegie six decades previously without the need to venture beyond national boundaries for funding.

 

Brantford 1904 Carnegie library

Brantford Public Library in 1917

Brantford’s classic red brick Beaux-Arts Carnegie Library, constructed between 1902 and 1904, was located at 73 George Street across from Victoria Park in the city’s main square. The building was designed by the firm of William and Walter Stewart with Lewis Taylor and manifested a sense of grand monumentalism with its central dome and a 20-step main entrance as shown in a 1917 First World War picture taken more than a dozen years after it opened on July 4, 1904.

Andrew Carnegie promised Brantford $30,000 after receiving a 1902 request from a prominent local judge, Alexander David Hardy, who was deeply interested in books, libraries, history, and cultural life in the city. Judge Hardy became an active local library trustee who later served as President of the Ontario Library Association in 1909—10. Brantford was one of Ontario’s leading cities at the time, with a population (1901 census) of just over 16,000. In a contemporary 1902 report by Lawrence Burpee, “Modern Public Libraries and their Methods,” Brantford reported holdings of almost 17,000 volumes and circulation just short of 67,000 items per year. The library staff numbered four, and a printed catalogue recorded holdings. About eighty percent of the collection was classed as fiction. This figure may reflect that the library used an antiquated classification system initially designed for mechanics’ institutes in Ontario thirty years earlier. More proficient methods were about to be employed under a new librarian, Edwin D. Henwood, including the Dewey Decimal system. Henwood became one of the many Ontario voices for improved library service in the course of his twenty-two years as chief librarian. He died suddenly in 1924 leaving a bequest of $1,000 for the children’s section that he had introduced.

After the city council agreed to comply with Carnegie’s terms to support its new free library, during the construction phase, costs escalated well beyond original 1902 estimates. Again, Hardy wrote to the Scottish-American philanthropist, who responded with an additional $5,000 in 1904 to complete the city’s building on the main square. As years passed, Hardy remained fully engaged with the library’s development, and in 1913, when the need for an enlarged stack room and basement became evident, he again asked for increased funding. Fortunately, the Carnegie Foundation (est. 1905) granted $13,000 of the $15,000 required to make the new renovation possible. The three grants totalling $48,000 became one of the most significant for Carnegie library buildings in Canada.

Many different exterior architectural elements exhibited the Beaux-Arts symmetry and style of the library. These features are evident in a serious of pictures taken by the award winning Park Co. [Edward P. Park] that are preserved at the Archives of Ontario.The Beaux-Arts style was popular in Europe and North American and suited more refined cultural tastes and respect for literature and reading. The classical form included a large portico supported by four Ionic columns surmounted by a triangular pediment. The dome above the portico offered an impressive visual presence which was complemented by a hipped roof. “Public Library” was inscribed across the nomenclature beneath the pediment, and just below above the main entrance, a Latin verse from the Odes of Horace proclaimed, “I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze.” To some people, the library exuded a sense of permanence--it was a lasting storehouse of knowledge. The exterior classical form of the building also included smaller formal decorations. Three small palmettes (arcoteria) adorned the two sides and peak of the central pediment. The names of famous Anglo-American writers such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Emerson, Dickens, Burns, and Thackeray were engraved on the smaller pedimented main-storey front windows.

 

 Inside the library, the primary visual feature at the entrance was, of course, the rotunda under the dome. Several stained-glass skylights at the top gave an air of elegance and permitted more highlighting of the recessed displays, marble walls, mosaic tiled floor, and adjoining rooms.  The two separate reading rooms (each 884 sq. ft.) flanking the rotunda were designed separately for ladies and gentlemen. The stack room (1,560 sq ft.) was located at the back and fronted by a charging station with two smaller rooms to each side (each 300 sq. ft), one for reference another for the librarian. There was no direct public access to the bookshelves, and the library enforced an age limit of fourteen which barred children. Stairs to the lower level led to a men’s smoking and conversation room (35 ft x 25 ft), a lecture room (35 ft x 25 ft), and a board room for meetings.

The principal defect in the library plan for adults seemed to be the separation of the two reading rooms from the books. Book retrievals by staff from the delivery counter were required, and users then had to retire to the rooms beside a noisy entrance area to browse or read items. The reference area was small and accommodated only one table for multiple users. As well, the front entrance steps for infirm or aged residents were a barrier indeed. The absence of a separate children’s area or room was soon recognized. An enlarged area for book stacks was built in 1913. Despite these physical drawbacks and necessary changes to the original plan, the Brantford library was known to be a progressive and service oriented. For several years after 1906, short regional library “institutes” for library staff and trustees were held at which new ideas were exchanged and hands-on training conducted.

 

Two decades after the library opened, residents were borrowing more than 140,000 volumes each year, just less than five volumes per capita. A children’s department had been developed in the basement in 1910 after the elimination of the onerous age limit. Sunday afternoon openings in the reading and reference rooms came into effect in 1911. Judge Hardy continued to play an important role in the development of the library due to his interest in historical works and progressive civic ideas. Speaking in 1910 at the Ontario Library Association meeting in Toronto, he looked forward to library progress:

 

One feature of this modern age which we must all recognize is that a knowledge of the fact whatever that fact may be about is the lord and master of the situation; and the modern library tends, by its reference department and by its methods for investigating, and its educative processes, to give citizens generally the opportunity of establishing the fact about anything. 

 

Judge Hardy’s contributions to the Brantford library were memorialized with a plaque in 1956 when new steps were dedicated to make the approach more functional. His young grandson, Hagood Hardy, who later became a notable musician and composer, was present and spoke briefly about the tribute to his grandfather. The Carnegie library continued in operation until a new building opened in 1992.

An earlier post on Edwardian library buildings in Ontario

Brockville 1904 Carnegie library

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.

An earlier post on Edwardian public libraries in Ontario