Time for a little bit of history! It’s all around us and, with the vast amounts
of information available to us via the Internet, anyone with a computer can
fill their minds with all kinds of useful information as well as general fluff
that is only useful if you’re playing Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit. Nevertheless, I do like investigating and
researching historical facts, even if some of those facts seem trivial to the
reader.
So…today my blog is all about a railroad
depot and a library...or libraries.
This is the former Louisville and
Nashville Railroad Depot in Knoxville Tennessee. It is an impressive structure. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to view the
interior of this building as it’s now been transformed into a school, but one
can still imagine just how busy this depot must have been in its heyday.
Knoxville’s Louisville and Nashville Railway Depot was
built in 1904 – 1905, so it’s about 107 years old! In 1982, it was added to the National
Register of Historic Places based on its architecture and its role in
Knoxville’s transportation history. The
building operated as a passenger station until the railroad ceased passenger
operations in 1968. It continued as an
office for Louisville and Nashville personnel until 1975.
This very upscale depot was built in
order to rival or outshine the nearby Southern Railway Depot. The designer was the head of Louisville and Nashville's
Engineering Department and he was the one mostly responsible for the building’s
Victorian and ‘chateauesque’ architectural appearance.
I can see a bit of Dutch influence in the
upper façade of this end of the building.
Due to changes in nearby roadways, the building’s ground level now lies
about 10 feet below Western Avenue so it’s a little difficult to envision just
where and how the rails and passenger trains fit with the structure.
Louisville and Nashville completely vacated the building
in 1975 and it sat empty until it was purchased in 1980. In 1982, the station was renovated for use in
conjunction with Knoxville’s 1982 World's Fair.
It was adjacent to World’s Fair Park.
Two restaurants, a Ruby Tuesday and the first L and N Seafood Grill
occupied the first floor of the building while the second floor was converted
into meeting rooms to be used in conjunction with the fair.
For a short time, 2002 to 2004, Ye Olde
Steakhouse operated out of the station while that restaurant’s original
building was being rebuilt after a fire.
In 2010, Knox County Schools announced that they would establish a
magnet high school…a ‘STEM’ school teaching science, technology, engineering
and mathematics…in the old depot. That
school is now fully operational and this beautiful old building has found yet
another life…
I like the fact that the old Louisville
and Nashville sign has been left up on one corner of the building. I also like the metal work supporting the roof
overhanging what must have been a rail platform or a truck delivery area.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was
one of the longest operating railroads in the United States. It was chartered in Kentucky back in
1850. The company continued in operation
until 1982…a 132 year run! Much of its
growth was due to an executive named Milton H. Smith. He ran the operation for over 35 years. He’d started out as a telegraph operator and
worked his way up. During the Civil War
he was named the Master of Transportation for all railroads in the occupied
South.
How many readers have heard of the
Carnegie Libraries? I’m sure that those
of us of a certain age are familiar with them, whereas I’m betting that most
people that were born after about 1965 haven’t heard about them… This
particular Carnegie Library building is in Etowah Tennessee. As you can see, it’s now being used as
Etowah’s City Hall.
Did you know that a total of 2,509
Carnegie Libraries were built between 1883 and 1929! Some of them belonged to public and
university library systems, 1,689 of them were built in the USA, 660 in Britain
and Ireland, 125 in Canada and others were constructed in Australia, New
Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, Mauritius and Fiji. Serbia?
Strange in that the rest of the countries where libraries were built were at one time or
another under the umbrella of the British Empire. (This is something else for
me to research!)
This is a photo of Andrew Carnegie… He
was born in Scotland in 1835 and he died in Lenox Massachusetts in 1919. At his wealthiest, in 2007 dollars, Forbes
Magazine estimated that he was worth $298,300,000,000 dollars. Even all of the Walton’s combined can’t hit
that number…
The Carnegie family immigrated to the USA when he was 13.
The family was so poor that they had to borrow money to immigrate. Andrew’s first job was as a factory worker in
a bobbin factory. Later, he became a
messenger boy and then a telegraph operator.
He was hired as the secretary and telegraph operator for the head of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company…and then worked his way up to Superintendent of a
key segment of that operation. The
president of the railroad helped Carnegie with investments…some of which might
land a person in jail today, but which were par for the course in the 1800’s.
During the Civil War, Carnegie was appointed
Superintendent of Military Railroads and the Union Government’s telegraph lines
in the East. (I wonder if he knew Milton Smith from the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad who was concurrently responsible for railroads in the occupied
South during the War)
Carnegie invested in oil…and then iron
and steel. Eventually, he put together a
‘little’ company called US Steel. He
made much of his fortune via that company, introducing mass production and the
vertical integration of his suppliers of raw materials. FYI…Vertical integration is measured by the
degree by which a company owns its own suppliers and its customers…
As of 1992, 911 of the original Carnegie libraries
in the USA were still serving as libraries and another 770 were still standing
and were being used for other purposes…such as Etowah’s City Hall. The first of the Carnegie libraries opened in
Dunfermline Scotland in 1883. The first
of his libraries in the USA was opened in Braddock PA in 1888. It’s interesting to note that 31 of the 39 libraries
that comprise the New York City Library System are Carnegie libraries.
Communities applying for a grant so they
could build a library had to meet the requirements of the “Carnegie Formula”. These requirements were: the town had to match
the contribution; they had to demonstrate the need for a public library; they
had to provide the building site; they were required to annually provide 10% of
the construction cost to support its operation, and; they had to provide free
service to all.
Andrew Carnegie basically gave away his
entire fortune. When he died, his last
$30,000,000 was given to foundations, charities and pensioners. His contributions and gifts are tied to many
well-known institutions. These include:
Carnegie Mellon University; Hooker Observatory on Mount Wilson; Carnegie Hall
in NYC; Carnegie Institution for Science; Tuskegee Institute and the New York
University Medical Center. He was
opinionated and controversial too… When the USA paid Spain $20,000,000 for the
Philippines, Carnegie offered $20,000,000 to the Filipino people so they could
buy back their freedom.
A final note… Carnegie has been quoted as
stating that “The life of a wealthy industrialist should comprise two parts…first,
the accumulation of wealth and second, distribution of that wealth to
benevolent causes.” This sounds a bit like Warren Buffet's philosophy today...
Just click on any of the photos to
enlarge them…
Thanks for stopping by for this little
adventure in American History!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
