 The main library in 2018 | |
| Established | 18 February 1895  |
|---|---|
| Location | 715 S Capitol Boulevard Boise, Idaho |
| Coordinates | 43°36′38″N116°12′28″W / 43.610631°N 116.2077237°W Coordinates: 43°36′38″N116°12′28″W / 43.610631°N 116.2077237°W |
| Branches | 4 |
| Parent organization | City of Boise |
| Website | www |
| Map | |
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The Boise Public Library is a public library system in Boise, Idaho, that includes a main library at 715 South Capitol Boulevard and four branch libraries within the city.
In 1863 the Idaho Territory was created with Lewiston as the capitol, and when the capitol was moved to Boise City in 1866, the Territorial Library was relocated to Boise City with "2000 pounds of books" from Lewiston. [1] Although not a public library, the Territorial Library served as a venue for public meetings at its location in the 3-room Curtis building, also known as the "Stone Jug," until the library was moved in 1872. The Curtis building was demolished in 1899 when the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Building was constructed at 609 Main Street. [2] Still not considered a public library, the Territorial Library continued as a public meeting space after 1872, [3] [4] and Boise's Board of Trade was organized at the library in 1883. [5]
The firm of Misener & Lamkin operated a circulating library in Boise City in the 1860s. [6] The firm, later known as Brown & Lamkin and then as H.H. Lamkin, managed the library from a bookstore at the Boise City post office. [7] And a library operated at Fort Boise as early as 1867, but it was not a public library. [8]
In 1874 a committee headed by territorial governor Thomas W. Bennett discussed plans for establishing a university at Boise City, and the committee recommended a free library open both to students and to the public. [9] Centers of higher education in Idaho were later founded in Moscow (1889), in Caldwell (1891), and in Pocatello (1901), but the Bennett committee was unable to establish neither a university nor a free library in Boise City.
In 1882 the Idaho Statesman reported that "a movement is on foot to establish a library and literary association in this city," [10] and in 1883 a free library again was in planning, including a plan for $10,000 in capital stock. [11] By 1886 a reading room had been created in the Boise City firehouse, also the location of City Hall, [12] [13] and by 1887 the reading room was billed as the only public library in Idaho. [14] By 1890 the library was under management of the "ladies of Boise." [15] In that year the friends of the library began a fundraising campaign to raise $100 per month for acquisitions to the library. [16] In 1894 the firehouse library requested that all circulating books be returned. [17]
The library came under the management of the Columbian Club, also known as the Columbian Exposition Club, a women's club established in May, 1892, to advance the interests of Idaho during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. [18] The Columbian Club in 1893 requested space for the library in the new City Hall (1893), [19] and late in 1894 the request was granted by the Boise City Council. [20] When the library opened in 1895, it included furniture formerly on display in the Woman's Room in the Idaho Building at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. [21] The club also hired its first librarian, Ella Reed, in 1895, [22] [23] and in that year the library catalog included 982 books. [24] In 1896 the library counted 12,358 visitors. [25]
The Columbian Club began a traveling library in 1899, [26] and in 1900 the club managed 15 traveling libraries that served regional communities and mining camps. [27] [28] Early in 1901, the Idaho legislature passed a traveling library bill, informally known as the "Columbian Club Bill," to promote free public libraries and to establish a state library commission. [29] [30]
In 1902 the Idaho State Library Commission requested from Andrew Carnegie that he establish a Carnegie library in Boise. [31] Carnegie agreed to donate $25,000 toward a library if the city provided matching funds, yearly maintenance funds of $2500, and property for a building site. [32] Voters approved a $25,000 bond levy that year, and the city purchased land on Washington Street between 8th and 9th Streets from the Independent School District at a cost of $4000. [33] The site was the location of Pioneer School (1868-1905), built by early residents of Boise City, and the schoolhouse was demolished when the library building was nearing completion. [34] [35] The city council established a board of trustees to oversee the library, and library management passed from the Columbian Club to the city, [36] although the club continued to donate books and materials to the library and to raise money to furnish the new library. [37] [38]
Carnegie reduced his gift offer to $15,000 in 1903 when documents he received from the Columbian Club seemed to inflate the local population to 10,000 residents, not 5900 as reported in the 1900 census. Carnegie later revised his gift offer again to $20,000. [39] [40] The 1903 Polk City Directory estimated the local population at 12,256 residents, not including the population of South Boise. [41] In 1905 Carnegie reconsidered his reduction of library funding, and he added $5000 to the amount of his gift. [42]
Boise's Carnegie library was designed by Tourtellotte & Co. and built by local contractors Michels & Weber in 1904. [43] Dedication of the building occurred May 3, 1905, [44] and the library opened to the public June 22, 1905. [45] By 1964 the library had outgrown its 11,000 square feet of floor space at the Carnegie library. [46]
In the early 1970s, options for the Carnegie building included demolition and use as a senior center, [47] [48] but in 1972 the building was sold at auction to Hon Investment Co. and later converted to office space. [49] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Voters rejected bond measures for construction of a new library, once in 1967 and again in 1969, [46] but a measure to purchase and remodel a warehouse was approved in 1971. The building had been occupied by the Salt Lake Hardware Co. since its completion in 1946, [50] and it contained over 64,000 square feet of floor space. [46] After renovation of the building, the main library opened in 1973 at 715 S Capitol Blvd.
The main library floor space was designed to serve a population of 75,000 residents, and to reduce demand at the main library, the city opened branch libraries beginning in 2008, when the population well exceeded 200,000 and the main library had outgrown its building. [51]
Plans for a new main library were drawn by architect Moshe Safdie in 2018. Safdie's building would cost $80 million and be ready to open in 2021-22 on the site of Boise's current main library. [52] The building would be divided into three areas: A library with 110,000 square feet of floor space, an event space, and offices for Boise City Department of Arts and History. Groundbreaking is expected later in 2019. [53]
Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, newspapers and magazines. Across 22 locations and online, VPL serves nearly 428,000 active members and is the third-largest public library system in Canada.
Edgar Wilson was a United States Representative from Idaho.
The Carnegie Library is in Egerton Street, Runcorn, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building and "possesses special architectural and historic interest within a national context". It was built in 1906 as an extension to the existing library with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, and closed in 2012.
John Everett Tourtellotte was a prominent western American architect, best known for his projects in Idaho. His work in Boise included the Idaho State Capitol, the Boise City National Bank, the Carnegie Library, and numerous other buildings for schools, universities, churches, and government institutions. From 1922 to 1930, he worked in Portland, Oregon.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Boise, Idaho, United States.
The Carnegie Public Library is a Neoclassical building designed by Tourtellotte & Co. and constructed in Boise, Idaho, in 1904–1905. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1982 it was included as a contributing property in the Fort Street Historic District.
The Main Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) system is located in Downtown Columbus, Ohio, United States. The public library is the largest in the library system, and holds approximately 300,000 volumes. It includes numerous rooms, including separate spaces for children, teens, an adult reading room, newspaper room, auditorium, gallery, gift shop, and a cafe. The third floor includes a computer lab and houses the Franklin County Genealogical & Historical Society.
The Boise City National Bank building in Boise, Idaho, was designed by architect James King as a 3-story, Richardsonian Romanesque commercial structure, inspired by the Marshall Field's Wholesale Store in Chicago. Construction began in April, 1891, and the building was completed in 1892.
The Idaho Building in Boise, Idaho, is a 6-story, Second Renaissance Revival commercial structure designed by Tourtellotte & Co. Constructed for Boise City real estate developer Walter E. Pierce in 1910–11, the building represented local aspirations that Boise City would become another Chicago. The facade features brick pilasters above a ground floor stone base, separated by seven bays with large plate glass windows in each bay. Terracotta separates the floors, with ornamentation at the sixth floor below a denticulated cornice of galvanized iron.
The Lower Main Street Commercial Historic District in Boise, Idaho, is a collection of 11 masonry buildings, originally 14 buildings, that were constructed 1897-1914 as Boise became a metropolitan community. Hannifin's Cigar Store is the oldest business in the district (1922), and it operates in the oldest building in the district (1897). The only building listed as an intrusion in the district is the Safari Motor Inn (1966), formerly the Hotel Grand (1914).
The Idaho Building at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, was a 2-story exhibition hall designed by James A. Fennell of the Boise architectural firm Wayland & Fennell. When the Idaho Building opened, journalist Blaine Phillips wrote, "The building is sublimely beautiful, the vivid colors which have been applied in perfect harmony with the surroundings, serving ably to accentuate the picturesqueness and uniqueness of the construction."
The State Street Historic District in Boise, Idaho, is a group of houses constructed between 1886 and 1940 along West Jefferson and State Streets, bounded by North 2nd and 3rd Streets. The houses represent a variety of architectural styles, and some were occupied by politicians and judges during the early 20th century. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
St. Alphonsus Hospital was a three-story, French Renaissance style building in Boise, Idaho, designed by architect J.K. Hollowell in 1893. Completed in 1894, the hospital was part of a small group of buildings constructed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise that included St. Teresa's Academy (demolished).
The Idaho State Forester's Building, also known as The Cabin, in Boise, Idaho, is a 1 1⁄2-story log cabin designed by Boise Payette Lumber Company architect Hans C. Hulbe and constructed in 1940 by round-log artists John Heillila and Gust Lapinoja. Logs for the cabin are peeled Engelmann spruce with full dovetail notch and oakum chinking. Inside paneling on office walls includes yellow pine, white pine, and western red cedar, and all of the wood came from Idaho forests and was donated by lumber companies with business interests in Idaho. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The Union Block and Montandon Buildings in Boise, Idaho, are 2-story commercial buildings with rustic sandstone facades. The Romanesque Revival Union Block was designed by John E. Tourtellotte and constructed in 1901, and the Renaissance Revival Montandon Building was designed by J.W. Smith and constructed in 1908. Also known as the Fidelity-Union Block, the buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1979.
St. Luke's Boise Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, is a 437-bed hospital founded in 1902 by James Bowen Funsten, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho. The hospital is part of St. Luke's, a regional healthcare system with six hospitals and more than 200 clinics staffed by roughly 14,000 employees. In 2017 the system received over 55,000 hospital admissions.
The Mrs. A.F. Rossi House in Boise, Idaho, is a one-story cottage in the Colonial Revival style with "proto-bungaloid" elements. The house was designed by Tourtellotte & Co. and constructed in 1906. Its prominent feature is an outset, left front center porch. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The Emerson and Lucretia Sensenig House, also known as the Marjorie Vogel House, is a 2 1⁄2-story Foursquare house in Boise, Idaho, designed by Watson Vernon and constructed in 1905. The house features a hip roof with centered dormers and a half hip roof over a prominent, wraparound porch. Porch and first-floor walls are brick, and second-floor walls are covered with square shingle veneer. A second-story shadow box with four posts is inset to the left of a Palladian style window, emphasized by three curved rows of shingles. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
Franklin School in Boise, Idaho, was a 2-story, brick and stucco building designed by Tourtellotte & Hummel and constructed in 1926. The school featured a flat roof with a decorated concrete parapet. The school was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1982. In 2009 the building was demolished.
