Larimer Memorial Library | |
Location | Palatka, Florida, USA |
---|---|
Coordinates | 29°38′51″N81°37′50″W / 29.64750°N 81.63056°W |
Built | 1929 |
Architect | Henry John Klutho [1] |
Architectural style | Prairie School, Art Deco |
NRHP reference No. | 08000163 [2] |
Added to NRHP | March 12, 2008 [2] |
Larimer Memorial Library is a historic library at 216 Reid Street in the city of Palatka, Putnam County, Florida, in the United States. It was given to the Arts Council of Greater Palatka in 1992, and renamed the Larimer Arts Center. [1] On March 12, 2008, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [2]
The library, commissioned by James Ross Mellon, a wealthy seasonal resident of the city, was constructed in 1929 at a cost of $100,000. [3] Henry John Klutho was selected to design the structure. [4] Mellon named the library for his wife Rachel Hughey Larimer. [3] The library would be dedicated and donated to the City of Palatka in April 1930 in an event attended by thousands. The presidents of the University of Florida, Florida Southern College, Stetson University, and the Florida State College for Women each spoke at the ceremony. [5]
Of Klutho's surviving buildings, by 1983 the Larimer was one of only 3 listed as still being in “excellent condition”. [6] The building's architectural style is a mix of the Prairie School and Art Deco. It is constructed of limestone with a basement and one story above. The otherwise symmetrical façade of the building bears two phrases: “Ignorance breeds crime” on the left of the entrance and “Knowledge is power” to the right. Iron filigree adorns the recessed portico of the building's double door entranceway at the top of a flight of steps. Upon the library's completion, there were two reading rooms to either side of entrance. The library's bookshelves were on the first floor, across the backside of the building. [7] These bookshelves housed 50,000 books, as well as other publications such as newspapers. Until 1992 when the library was converted into the Larimer Arts Center, the library had a children's room, a librarian's office, and a magazine room, as well as the main reading room. [8]
Today the Larimer Arts Center houses an art gallery and the Scarlett-Hill Theater.
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The institution was originally established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees. In 1967, it became the current-day Carnegie Mellon University through its merger with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon and formerly a part of the University of Pittsburgh.
Palatka is a city in and the county seat of Putnam County, Florida, United States. Palatka is the principal city of the Palatka Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is home to 72,893 residents. The city is also home to St. Johns River State College, St. Johns River Water Management District Headquarters, and Ravine Gardens State Park. The area is well known for its local festivals, most notably the Florida Azalea Festival and the Blue Crab Festival. The population was 10,446 at the 2020 census.
Sanford is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. It is located in Central Florida and its population was 61,051 as of the 2020 census.
Larimer may refer to:
Springfield is a historic neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida, United States, located to the north of downtown. Established in 1869, it experienced its greatest growth from the early 1880s through the 1920s. The Springfield Historic District is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and contains some of the city's best examples of 19th and early 20th century architecture.
Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.
The Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, is an architecturally and historically significant building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Capitol is at the intersection of Apalachee Parkway and South Monroe Street in downtown Tallahassee, Florida.
Henry Hornbostel was an American architect and educator. Hornbostel designed more than 225 buildings, bridges, and monuments in the United States. Twenty-two of his designs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Oakland City Hall in Oakland, California and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum and University Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The St. James Building is a historic building in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida, currently housing Jacksonville City Hall. It was designed by architect Henry John Klutho and opened in 1912. One of many structures in downtown Jacksonville designed by Klutho after the Great Fire of 1901, it is considered his Prairie School masterpiece.
Henry John Klutho (1873–1964) was an American architect known for his work in the "Prairie School" style. He helped in the reconstruction of Jacksonville, Florida after the Great Fire of 1901—the largest-ever urban fire in the Southeast—by designing many of the new buildings built after the disaster. This period lasted until the beginning of World War I. Several Jacksonville architects began their careers in the offices of Klutho's firm.
The Jacksonville Public Library is the public library system of Jacksonville, Florida. It primarily serves Jacksonville and Duval County merged areas, and is also used by the neighboring Baker, Nassau, Clay, and St. Johns Counties. It is one of the largest library systems in Florida, with a collection of over three million items. A division of the city government, the library has the third largest group of city employees after the city's Fire Department and Sheriff's Office. There are twenty branches and a Main Library in the system.
The Fisher Fine Arts Library was the primary library of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia from 1891 to 1962. The red sandstone, brick-and-terra-cotta Venetian Gothic giant, part fortress and part cathedral, was designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839–1912).
The Laura Street Trio is a group of three historic buildings located on and near Laura Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The Trio consists of two perpendicularly arranged skyscrapers, the Florida Life Building and the Bisbee Building, plus a third structure, the Old Florida National Bank, which is framed by the other two in a unique pattern. The three buildings, constructed in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901, are architecturally significant, but are currently endangered.
Downtown Palatka is the central business district of Palatka, Florida. According to the Palatka Community Redevelopment Agency, the district is bounded by Main Street to the north, Laural Street to the south, the St. Johns River to the east, and Eleventh Street to the west, Historical Fort Shannon was located at the east end of downtown on the river, near what is today City Hall. Area transportation is conducted by Ride Solution and connects downtown passengers to other core areas in Putnam County.
Robert C. Broward was an architect and author based in Jacksonville, Florida. He had a 61-year professional career during which he designed more than 500 projects. He was an adjunct Professor of Design at the University of Florida for more than four decades. He is known for his water effects including spilling effects with a decorative and sonic element, taking advantage of Florida's frequent rainstorms. His designs often included the work of local painters, sculptors and mixed-media artists. His works included small houses and chapels, large warehouses and office buildings, churches, art museums, movie theatres and large high-rises.
The architecture of Jacksonville is a combination of historic and modern styles reflecting the city's early position as a regional center of business. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, there are more buildings built before 1967 in Jacksonville than any other city in Florida, though few structures in the city center predate the Great Fire of 1901. Numerous buildings in the city have held state height records, dating as far back as 1902, and last holding a record in 1981.
Laura Street is a north–south street in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, named for the daughter of the city's founder, Isaiah D. Hart. Historically, the downtown portion of Laura Street has been considered the financial district of Jacksonville.
Rufus Sargent (1812-1886) was an American architect practicing in Newburyport, Massachusetts during the nineteenth century.