The Davenport Public Library is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

located in

Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

. With a history dating back to 1839, the Davenport Public Library's Main Library is currently housed in a 1960s building designed by

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

architect

Edward Durell Stone Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City; the Parliament H ...

. The Davenport Public Library system is made up of three libraries—the Main Library at 321 Main Street; the Fairmount Branch Library at 3000 N. Fairmount Street ; and the Eastern Avenue Branch Library at 6000 Eastern Avenue .

History

The library began with a reading room in the Le Claire Hotel established in 1839. Another reading room and

circulating library A circulating library (also known as lending libraries and rental libraries) lent books to subscribers, and was first and foremost a business venture. The intention was to profit from lending books to the public for a fee. Overview Circulating li ...

were announced in an 1853 article in the ''Davenport Gazette''. The library eventually leased an entire building. Although then named the Young Men's Library Association, it was managed by the community's women. In 1877, one of them—Clarissa Cook—pledged $10,000 to the library for the construction of its own building if property were obtained for the construction by the citizens. After successfully raising the funds to purchase a lot, the city laid the

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

for the Cook Memorial Building on November 7, 1877. The library eventually outgrew its space. Even though the Library Association no longer had to pay rent and charged a fee for borrowing books, it was struggling financially and could not resolve the issue itself. Local author Alice French requested the assistance of her personal friend

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, who was already becoming known for his philanthropic assistance of libraries. Carnegie promised to donate $50,000 to construct a new public library if the library were tax supported. The question was successfully put to the vote at the April 1900 election, the first in Iowa which permitted women voters. The city opened its Carnegie library, the largest west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

in 1904, with $75,000 in funds donated by Carnegie. The building was designed by

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

architect Calvin Kiessling. The library's first director in the new Carnegie building was

Marilla Waite Freeman Marilla Waite Freeman (February 21, 1871 – October 29, 1961) was a prominent librarian known for her innovative ideas in library service. At the time of her retirement from the Cleveland Public Library in 1940, she was "one of the best known an ...

. By 1960, the library had outgrown the Carnegie Building as well. It was expanded in 1963 to provide space for further services for children, but the expansion caused displacement of the sand on which the building was founded, leading to structural damage. In 1966, the Carnegie Building had to be demolished, and the library temporarily relocated to a disused department store until new quarters could be constructed. The subsequent Davenport Public Library building, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, was opened on October 6, 1968. The local architectural firm of Stewart-Robison-Laffan served as associate architects. In 2019, it was listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties.Click on "Historic Preservation Commission" and then click on "Davenport Register of Historic Properties and Local Landmarks". In 2020, the building was included as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Branches

While the library had long maintained branches in area schools, it opened its first official branch, the Annie Wittenmyer Branch, on April 3, 1978. This branch was located in the historic Annie Wittenmyer Complex, in rooms that were used as the kitchen and dining room of the former Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home. However, due to the growth of the area and the proximity of this branch to the Main Library, officials began considering where to better locate a branch building in the mid-1980s. The citizens of Davenport passed a referendum in 2003 that supported the building and operation of two new library branches. The Annie Wittenmyer Branch closed in November 2005. The Fairmount Branch Library opened on Saturday, January 14, 2006; and the Eastern Avenue Branch Library opened on Saturday, July 10, 2010, completing the library expansion project. File:Fairmount.jpg, Fairmount Branch DPL Eastern.jpg, Eastern Avenue Branch

References

Notes

External links

Official websiteOfficial Site of the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections CenterOfficial City of Davenport site
{{authority control 1877 establishments in Iowa Library buildings completed in 1968 Tourist attractions in Davenport, Iowa Buildings and structures in Davenport, Iowa Public libraries in Iowa Carnegie libraries in Iowa Edward Durell Stone buildings Education in Davenport, Iowa Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic district contributing properties in Iowa Davenport Register of Historic Properties New Formalist architecture