Ardmore Public Library - 1906
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Libraries established in Indian Territory before 1907, the year of statehood, were of doubtful legality, for the white population had no civic rights. This did not prevent a much-daring Ardmore woman, however, from starting a movement for a public library in 1903. Mrs. Hosea Townsend, wife of a U.S. District Judge, was so determined on a library for Ardmore that she actually took up the matter with Andrew Carnegie. Feeling though as women were often made to feel at the turn of the century, that she was overstepping the mark by engaging in business affairs, she persuaded C.L. Anderson of the First National Bank to complete the negotiations. With his usual generosity towards communities in the sparsely settled territories, Mr. Carnegie gave $15,000 for the library.
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Ground was broken for the building in 1904. The mayor, R. W. Dick, was nearly as active in the library’s behalf as were the members of the building committee, R.E. Randol, W. F. Whittington and W. A. Gillima. Although the structure was completed in 1905, it was unoccupied for a year, during which time it suffered so much abuse that the city had to spend $300 for repairs before the library could b e opened. The formal opening was on October 1, 1906 and there will be a Centennial Party to be held on Sunday, October 1, 2006 from 1-5.
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Mrs. Myrtle Jones, chosen then as librarian, has now completed over thirty years of service. The Orio Club, a women’s organization prominent in Ardmore history, helped to fill the library’s almost empty shelves by buying or soliciting 350 volumes. This made a total of only 650 books. But the Sons of Confederate veterans gave thirty volumes of Southern literature, and the Ladies of the Leaf donated a set of Lord’s “Beacon Lights of History.” The following year the women’s clubs added 115 more volumes. The Ladies of the Leaf continue to meet at the Library and is the oldest continually running book club in the state.
But that year a panic came, and the library had to struggle through some difficult times. Once, in order to get more books, the library had a soda-fountain day, providing waiters for a local soda fountain for a percentage of the day’s receipts. Sodas were drunk by friends of the library to an extent that the library was enabled to buy seventeen new titles. With these it started a rental shelf, which for fourteen years thereafter provided much-needed new fiction and, often, supplies for the library.
Slow progress was made for a while, but in 1919 a new mayor, abetted by a friendly city attorney, gave the library an appropriation so generous that it was able to double its book collection within two years, reaching 12,500 volumes. During the following years, the library, with such an impetus, was again nearly redoubled, and by the middle of 1936 had 23,136 books.
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During the greater part of her librarianship, Mrs. Jones worked without an assistant and without a vacation, but she later had two assistants. They were necessary to handle the circulation, which in 1935 ran over 100,000 volumes.
The growth of the library was somewhat hindered in 1925, when the Carnegie building was condemned as unsafe, and had to be closed. The library reopened in a month in an old church building owned by the First Methodist Church. After a year in these quarters, the library returned on November 6, 1926 to the remodeled Carnegie building.
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The Carnegie building lives on as the Ardmore Garden Club on Stanley Street. The second story was removed after damage from a violent storm, but the rest of building is original. You can see the progression of the library in the attached photos. The newest building was opened in 1999. We now have 14 FTE employees. And although we have longevity of employment, everyone gets a vacation! We offer meeting rooms, Internet access, children’s and adult programming, periodical reading room, genealogy resources, family movie days, and over 80,000 titles to choose from. This year, 2006, is the Centennial Celebration of the Ardmore Public Library and more can be learned by reviewing our website at www.ardmorelibrary.org.
Terri Sharp
Assistant Director
Ardmore Public Library
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Oklahoma
Libraries
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