As planning for the library proceeded, a debate arose over the appropriate location. Newspapers, politicians, and the public participated in a heated discussion over two different sites: their relative costs, which was most suitable for women and children, and so on and so forth. After a great deal of debate and some manoeuvring by vocal members of the public, the newspapers, the city council, and the Library Board, the “park site” on George Street, on the eastern side of Victoria Square, was chosen.
Reverend G.C. Mackenzie, the rector of Grace Anglican and chair of the Library Board, laid the cornerstone for the new library on December 16, 1902. The Brantford Expositor reported that Mayor D.B. Wood spoke at the ceremony, describing “the splendid building that is now being erected and of what it meant to the beauty and progress of the city. The building would be large, spacious, beautiful, ornamental and useful. It would be a building that would rank among the best in Canada for architectural beauty.… Every detail of the building had been gone into … and when the building was completed it would be one of which every Brantfordite would be proud.”6
Ironically, and somewhat unfairly, the official cornerstone recorded the names of the city councillors who voted down Inglis’s motion to approach Carnegie, but not the name of Judge Hardy, who secured the funding. The oversight was not remedied until after his death, when a memorial stone recognizing his role was included in the north side of new library steps.
The finished library, built by Stewart, Stewart &Taylor Architects and Shultz Bros. Construction,7 did not disappoint. The day after it opened, The Expositor reported that “vast sums” had been expended, and that their “careful investigation” had revealed that the “outlay is much greater than was first anticipated.”8 The story hints at public scandal, but not in a way that diminished the paper’s enthusiasm for the finished building: “The new Carnegie library in this city was informally opened, and last evening a very large number of prominent people took advantage of the opportunity to inspect the building.… It presented a unique appearance, and those who saw it from a distance or gave it a critical inspection while going through were more than delighted. The building is complete in every particular.”9
The Expositor’s “Library Notes” of the same day reported that “The free library opened yesterday and was crowded as a result, all day long. Hundreds visited the building and expressed themselves as delighted with the interior furnishings. The library is certainly fitted up in magnificent shape and everything has been done with a view to the comfort of the patrons.” The only negative note sounded complained of some “considerable trouble” with “dogs which were brought in.” To ensure no similar problems in the future, a new library regulation prohibiting dogs in the building was immediately established.
Right from the start, the Brantford library was recognized as one of Canada’s finest examples of the Beaux Arts style that it embodies. Situated on the edge of one of the country’s finest Victorian squares, its architectural details included a mansard roof, a dome, and a grand entrance. The entrance was set in a large portico at the top of a long, imposing stairway. At the top of the stairs, four Ionic columns supported a triangular pediment in front of the building’s dome. The interior featured archways, pillars, a mosaic, and a rotunda with a stained glass skylight with Islamic tracery situated underneath the dome. Above the main entrance, the builders inscribed a boast from Virgil, who wrote, “I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze.” The names Shakespeare, Dickens, Milton, Tennyson, Burns, and other English-speaking writers were embossed in pediments above the first floor windows.
Lavish details like those in the Brantford library were common in Carnegie’s early buildings. It is not clear what his secretary, James Bertram, thought of the details of the Brantford library, but he grew impatient with cities which, in his opinion, spent Carnegie’s money on unnecessary architectural embellishments. In 1911, he issued a pamphlet entitled Notes on the Erection of Library Buildings, which included written advice and standard designs, and warned against “aiming at such exterior effects as may make impossible an effective and economical layout of the interior.” The pamphlet was sent to municipal authorities when they were notified that they had received a Carnegie grant. Looking at the library in Brantford, one wonders if Bertram was too concerned about architectural extravagances, for the fine details of the Brantford building very successfully confirmed its significance.
Details of the Brantford Carnegie Library. The quote from Horace above the front entrance translates as “I have built a monument more lasting than bronze” — Odes, 3.30.1. The 1902 cornerstone commemorates the dedication of the library. In 1956, when the stairs were redone, a stone inscription was added to recognize Judge A.H.Hardy’s role arranging Carnegie funding.
In downtown Brantford, the Carnegie Building housed the public library for almost ninety years. It served, not only as a centre for reading and the borrowing of books, but as a place of culture and public education, sometimes serving as a home for the city’s museum, archives, and art gallery. During its tenure as the public library, the building was one of Brantford’s most successful public buildings, but it was showing signs of wear by the 1980s. In 1979, the public library’s chief librarian, Lavinka Clark, complained that “the premises have been put to the fullest possible use and the building is grossly inadequate for our ever-expanding needs and programs beneficial to the public.”10 After repeated entreaties, complaints, and submissions to city council, it agreed to move the public library.
The Carnegie Building was closed in December 1991. Its impressive exterior remained, but the interior of the building was worn out from almost ninety years of constant wear and tear. The Brantford Public Library was moved to less elegant but more spacious premises in an empty Woolco store on Colborne Street. The library won an award for its clever renovation of its new building. In other cities, vacated Carnegie libraries were converted into banks, office buildings, law offices, government buildings, and even private homes, but the architectural masterpiece that Carnegie gave Brantford sat empty and forlorn, unable to attract a tenant. Local rumours suggested that the building would become a provincial courthouse. The president of the Historical Society, David Judd, proposed that it become the home of the Brant County Museum and Archives.11 He was successful in attracting some support but not the necessary funding. At one point the city put the building up for sale and a local firm, MMMC Architects, looked at a possible renovation on behalf of a private insurance group. In 1996–97, the city considered turning the building into offices for the Planning and Building Department.
As the 1990s progressed, the building seemed to have no future. The future of its setting seemed even bleaker. On one side of the building, the harsh aesthetics of the 1967 city hall undermined the historical integrity of Victoria Square. On the other side, the integrity of the square was being challenged by a new owner who had bought Park Church and decided to demolish it in favour of a parking lot. As Peter Muir wrote in Brant News:
The Carnegie building is part of an impressive grouping of buildings that surround Victoria Square in the centre of Brantford. The “neo-classical” building with its temple like front steps, massive pillars, domed hall and mosaic floor, now sits vacant and lifeless beside Park Church.
The Church has brought attention to the fate of “one of the most impressive public squares in the Province of Ontario.” It has been granted a temporary reprieve from the wreckers’ ball but is slated for destruction in the spring. The Carnegie building may be next on death row. It has been empty for three years and needs work if a suitable tenant is to be found.12
These were difficult times for Brantford’s most historic square. The old YWCA and Old One Hundred were already gone. The city hall had not retained any vestiges of heritage. The Carnegie Building had been vacant for almost a decade. Park Church was slated