- Featured History Subject -
History of the Central Library (1922-2006)
and the Bay County Library System.
The Central Library will close this month bringing an end to the history of library building on the east side of Bay City. A new building that is much larger is reading to begin a new chapter in the history of the Bay County Library System. This building will be known as the Alice and Jack Wirth Public Library.
The Central Library has an interesting history. Like the new library building there were many issues to overcome before it was finally erected. The amazing part of its history is that it took so long for the community to finally build a permanent library building on the east side of the river. For over 50 years the east side library operated out of temporary quarters which included sharing space in the sheriff’s office of the original county building, the city hall, and several commercial buildings.
William L. Clements, a member of the library board, took the lead position in getting a proper library building constructed. Clements was an avid collector of rare books and documents, which are now a part of the collections at the Clement’s Library at the University of Michigan. Clements did not get full support from within the community to invest in a central library building, and he ended up working with the Carnegie Corporation obtaining a grant from them for a major portion of the funding. However, to get their support they insisted on the creation of a central library board which didn’t exist at that time.
Residents on the west side of Bay City had the Sage Library with its own building that was donated by lumber baron Henry W. Sage in 1884, when West Bay City existed. They had their own board and they weren’t interested losing control of their fine library. After a long-period of haggling an agreement was worked that allowed each library to have their own board which fell under control of a central library board.
The land chosen for the Central Library was purchased from donations made by Clements, James E. Davidson and H.B. Smith who donated $20,000 for this purpose. At the time the property was known as the McEwan farm site, whose residence occupied the western half the block with the library owning the eastern half. $31,000 was appropriated towards the new library by the city, and the Carnegie contribution was $35,000. Architect, Albert Kahn of Detroit was contracted to design the new structure which was to be of colonial style made of Indiana sandstone and Bedford Stone trimming.
Bids for building the new library were requested in 1918. The bids received far exceeded the available funding. Adding to this problem was the WWI and a request from the federal government to forego any new constructions during this period. When the proposition was finally revisited in 1920, the board of trustees abort Kahn’s design for something affordable. Edward L. Tilton, an architect suggested by the Carnegie Corporation, who came up with a design usiing red brick which was substantially less expensive the sandstone called for by Kahn’s design. Bids were requested and this time the cost was around $80,000 and within the funding plan.
During July 1922, the library was relocated from its temporary quarters at the City Hall to the new Central Library building on Center Avenue. During January 2006, it will relocate one block north to the new Alice and Jack Wirt Public Library.
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