In 1913, thanks to Andrew Carnegie, St. Petersburg finally received enough money to build the city’s first public library. The $17,500 grant was matched by the city and used to construct a Beaux-Arts style building next to Mirror Lake (the city’s original water reservoir).

Of the 3,000 libraries Carnegie funded in the US and abroad, only ten were awarded to Florida. Unlike the one built in my home town of Tucson, this one is still in use as a public library. Though it was almost demolished in the 1980s since it had fallen into disrepair.

Thankfully, the community rallied around the building, in 1987 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The restoration (and a sizable addition) took a decade to complete.

I’ve walked by this building several times over the past four years and only recently took the time to pop in. It was a pleasure to see the striking historic architecture still actively in use. It seems we actually have Colonel James Anderson to thank for this legacy.

When Andrew Carnegie was a poor, hard-working immigrant child Mr. Anderson gave him access to his personal library of over 400 volumes. Apparently, Carnegie took advantage of the offering to educate himself, eventually becoming a successful businessman*.

Carnegie was so grateful for the use of Anderson’s library that he “resolved, if ever wealth came to me, [to see to it] that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to the nobleman”.

*Though it’s been said he was quite a ruthless one, he’s known as one of the robber barons of America’s Gilded Age.