Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
A snapshot of Old Mansfield and The Carnegie Library
On 6th July 1904, a joint ceremony was held on Leeming Street to open the new Mansfield Museum and lay the foundation stone for Mansfield Public Library next door. The library was completed and opened the following year.
The money for the new library had come from a rather surprising source – philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was born in Scotland in 1835 but moved to America at the age of 12. He became a successful businessman and made a fortune in the steel industry. In later life he began to use this money to fund the building of public libraries. The first ones were around his home in Pittsburgh and his birthplace in Dunfermline, but he soon started accepting applications from further afield. In total he helped to fund over 2,500 libraries across the world, including the one in Mansfield. Like many of the services which benefited from his generosity, the new Mansfield Public Library was often known as The Carnegie Library. His input is celebrated in the monumental pediment on the front of the building.
MANSFIELD FREE LIBRARY
THE GIFT OF
ANDREW CARNEGIE ESQ.
BUILT 1904
There is also the rather mysterious advert "If you want to save money join the stores. Total membership now over 11,000". This is probably a reference to the co-operative societies which were widespread in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. These were businesses which were owned jointly by their members and passed on the benefits of their size and scale to users. The modern Co-op grocery stores and funeral businesses are the successors of these earlier local schemes.
The library remained in its home on Leeming Street until 1977, when the new Central Library on West Gate was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. At that time, the building next to the museum was renamed The Old Library and became the community arts centre. It now houses the town’s Youth Arts services.