| Architect: McLean and Wright of Boston, Massachusetts
Contractor:
Richard A. Brocklebank
(multi-term Calgary alderman)
Craftsmen:
George Christie (head
stonemason) and locally hired Scottish stonecutters
Original
cost:
$100,000 ($80,000 grant
from American industrialist Andrew Carnegie and $20,000
from the City of Calgary)
Construction materials:
yellow Paskapoo
sandstone quarried at Calgary's Oliver Quarry. Load
bearing sandstone walls (smoothly finished) backed with
brick. Copper roof. Douglas fir floors, mahogany and
birch trim.
Architectural style:
Classical with strong
influence of Beaux-Arts tradition. Decorative shell
motive on roof originally carved in sandstone.
Classically inspired portico. Front entrance flanked by
Ionic columns and topped by an elaborately carved
pediment. Balconies with iron railings off the largest
first storey windows. Latticing in the smaller second
storey windows.
Original interior
details:
On both sides of the
foyer marble staircases led to the second floor. Two main
floor fireplaces trimmed with mahogany. Moulded plaster
columns and ceilings. Exterior entrance - granite steps
and mahogany doors. Back walls gracefully curved with an
expanse of windows which allowed a view of the park.
Basement; walk-in vault, newspaper room. Main floor;
reading room, children's room, reference room, stacks and
cataloguing room. Second floor; lecture hall with stage,
technical reading room and women's reading room.
Historical highlights:
- built on 4.78 acres
owned by the city since 1889. The library site
was chosen by plebiscite on August 12, 1908.
- Chief Librarian,
Alexander Calhoun described the park as " an
unsightly wilderness of sand and scrub."
Still to be landscaped when the library opened in
1912, it was gradually transformed by city Parks
Superintendents, particularly William Reader,
into a beautiful formal park in the late
Victorian tradition. Park became a civic showcase
and a botanical experiment.
- by October 1908
site excavation was done and construction work
began
- February 1910
contractor Brocklebank and architects McLean and
Wright visited Attleboro, Massachusetts Public
Library which they had also designed. The
architectural plans for Attleboro and Calgary
were almost identical.
- Calgary was
Alberta's first public library and the first
library structure in the province financed by
wealthy American steel industrialist and
philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.
- During a 33 year
period Carnegie financed 2,811 libraries
world-wide.
- construction
completed in 1911, library officially
opened January 2, 1912.
- during the first
three months, five thousand Calgarians (city's
population was 40,000) became library members.
- Central Park
Library became the cultural centre of the city.
Meeting place for educational and arts groups;
Calgary Women's Literary Club, Historical Society
of Calgary, Calgary Natural History Society,
Calgary Arts Association.
- home to Calgary
College 1911-1915 (first attempt at establishing
a University of Calgary)
- in 1928 the park
was re-named Memorial Park when Cenotaph was
unveiled on Remembrance Day to commemorate the
name change and those who died during the war.
- building was
Calgary's main library until 1963 when the six -
storey W.R.Castell Library opened on Macleod
Trail.
- Memorial Park
Branch library maintained in basement 1963-1967
- 1964-1973 building
leased to Glenbow Foundation as an archives and
research centre
- declared a
Provincial History Resource in 1976
- 1977 - $1.1 million
interior/exterior rehabilitation project funded
by municipal and provincial grants and private
donations.
- re-opened October
16, 1977 as Memorial Park Branch Library. Second
floor space rented to Muttart Art Gallery.
- in 2002 celebrating 90 years of library service to Calgarians,
Memorial Park is one of 17 branch libraries in
the Calgary Public Library system.
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Memorial Park Library