Please Send Your Pictures

Inside the Fort Scott Library was a framed example of some of the old picture post cards. I wonder if anyone reading this has old pictures or postcards of Carnegie buildings? If you do and would like to share them, please scan them and attach them to an e-mail to me:
somanybookssolittletime@hotmail.com

On to Fort Scott

On to Fort Scott by way of some coffee at the local BP Station. We're taking highway 39 east. I take a nice long nap while Phil drives and wake up just in time to come down the long hill into Fort Scott. Every fast food place in town has a yellow school bus or two parked next to it and high school students crossing the highway, milling around, talking in groups. A sign tells us that there is an agricultural contest at the community college. The Carnegie is in the older part of town. We find the building, built in 1902 at 201 National.

This is the largest Carnegie building we have seen so far. All original building with no additions like Chanute or Wellington. The children's room is still in the basement. Little is changed. There are suspended ceilings which were added at some point, but that is about all of the updating this building has seen. Fort Scott is a town that respects and treasures its older buildings, so I sure that at some point it will get a facelift.

Chanute Carnegie Library Building

The Carnegie building in Chanute has been renovated and is now a judicial center. We are able to go inside and wander around without too much trouble. There are offices and courtrooms along a hall.

Back to Questing

Did you think I had just left you in the middle of Chanute, KS standing out in front of the Chanute Public Library? Did you think that I had forgotten all about questing and blogging about it? Well, I didn't. For the past several weeks I've been working really hard to get ready for the summer reading programs at our library. You see, I'm the one at our library who gets all the summer events put on a calendar and sends it to the printer. I then design flyers and sign up sheets for all those events and make multiple copies to advertise them to the public. Getting an ad ready and putting it in the paper, running copies of the calendar around town, putting the calendar up on the library website, reading logs ready...all the stuff that goes into getting ready for summer at a library. For the last week or so, the main thing has been to get the library decorated and looking good. As you can see from the photos that are on our library blog, it's looking good. We're ready for a great summer. Anyway, as of today I'm back to blogging!

Chanute Public Library

More pictures of Chanute Public Library.

A Safari

After stopping to download the pictures we took yesterday, we're ready to go on to Chanute, our first library of the day. We spot the Carnegie building on the way into town, but go on a few blocks to the Chanute Public Library. The building is an old railroad depot and houses both the library and the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum. The Johnsons were explorers and filmmakers in the 1920's and 30's. Martin was raised in Chanute and Osa was from nearby Independence. I've had older people in Parsons tell me about Martin and Osa visiting their classrooms to show movies of Africa and the south seas.

Day 2

It is a beautiful day for Carnegie Questing, unlike yesterday. Today there is little wind and no rain. It is a perfect day to get in and out of the van without getting soaked by a sudden thunderstorm. We leave home early and on the way I call Sam on my cell phone. Does he want to go along with us? No. Would he like to meet us for breakfast? Of course. There is no question as to where we will meet. Sam's favorite breakfast place is the Breakfast Nook and Bakery in Parsons, owned by friends. They have wonderful pastries and breads. The fragrance of fresh breads baking fills the street outside. When we walk in, the owners say hi and show us to a table next to the window. It's a great start to a very promising day.

Carnegie Libraries in the News

There is so much variety in the architecture of the Carnegie Libraries. Winfield was no exception.

A co-worker of Phil's sent him this article about damage to a Carnegie Library.

Winfield Public Library seems to be about the size of our library and probably built around the same time. There is a large open main floor with meeting rooms down a long hall. Since I help with the displays at our library I am especially interested in the large moveable museum style cases displaying a history of the Nancy Drew books and the original Carolyn Keene. We hang out at the library for a while waiting for time to pick up Caleb. Caleb is a good friend of both our sons and I can’t wait to tell him all about our quest. He listens politely. “Do you know where the Carnegie building is,” I ask? “No? We’ll show you after supper.” He takes us to his favorite Mexican restaurant and it is just across the parking lot from the Carnegie building! We have a delicious meal and talk non-stop, catching up of all the news. It is dark when we start home and lots of thunderstorms and lightening in the distance. It is a beautiful night for driving. We are just behind the storms. We arrive safely home at around 11pm having driven about 350 miles.

Winfield, Kansas

I call our friend Caleb in Winfield to see if we can meet him for supper. He says 7pm will work out after he gets out of football practice. Hopefully he knows a good place to eat. We find the old Carnegie building fairly easily. We are getting pretty good at finding the older section of town and then spotting the Carnegie. This building has been purchased by a local dentist. His office is in the basement where the children’s room used to be. Upstairs there is a dance studio and the offices of a fraternity. At this time of day moms and dads are dropping their kids off for dance class. We wait for a break in the crowd to take our picture and go inside. We go into each room, asking and receiving permission to look around. There is still a lot of life in the old building. Kids, teens, music, activity. We visit the dentist’s office. The receptionist shows us an album of pictures of the remodeling that was done before the dental office moved in.