Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-16
Site or No site.

Whoever in opposing the Pennsylvania
avenue location for the Washington Public
Library will offer to donate or will give
reasonable assurance Of securing better
site will he a benefactor. on the other
hand whoever opposes and criticises sim
ply denouncing the only site in the city
which is at present found to be available.
Will be a mere obstructionist, denying to
Washington the benefits which will be de-
rived from the acceptance of Mr. Carnegie S
proposition.
Those who are in closest touch with pub
lie library affairs have not the slightest an
ticipation that the present Congress will
appropriate for the purchase of library
site. The avenue location is already at the
disposal of the municipality without addi-
tional expense. privilege for which an an
nuaI compensation has long been made to
the market company in the shape of de-
creased rental The expense of an exam
ination of title to be sure that there is no
reversiOn to the original grantor of the
land is all that is required.
The arguments against an avenue site
based upon the lowness of the ground, the
chances Of flood and the sewerage difficult
ties were raised and overcome when the
post office building placed on the south
side Of that street These objections apply
in a general way to the use of any site on
Pennsylvania avenue. whether at Ith or
18th street. for any public purpose. They
will be entirely removed when the Compre-
hensive system of sewerage is perfected
and when u high bridge takes the place of
Long Bridge dam, and a sea-wall further
protects the city from the Potomac. These
projects Of improvement are sure to be
realized The environments of the avenue
are sure to be made worthy of the great
historic street of the republic. A library
building at eth street will mark a step for
ward in the process of avenue adOrnment.
How any one who either on public or pri-
vate grounds is interested in the develop
ment OF the capitals principal street and
in lining it with credtable public and pri-
vatc buildings all along it's course can re-
peat in exaggerated shape these attacks
upon the availability for building purposes
OF avenue properly, is inconceivable.
Inc location is in many respects desirable
for circulating library purposes. 1t is very
Tear 10 the center of the population for
whose especial benefit the public library is
created The market and the post office
usually mark a central, accessible and
much-frequented portion of city Where
the population goes for its daily bread and
there it may without Inconvenience also go
for its books. There is no other site In the
city so accessible through the street rail-
leads
This library. in distinction from the Lii
brary of Congress, is primarily circu-
+atlng collection for the working people and
the school children. Its active utility will
be the vindicatiOn of its existence 1t is not
intended to compete. and it cannot COM
pete with the Congressional Library as a
reference collection and as a students and
DoOkWnrm s reading room. 1t will serve its
higheSt purposes when it is a scene of
crowd and hustle. distributing to the people
for home use the greatest number of books
junction inconsistent with the fullest en-
Joyment of that quiet sleepy atmosphere
which the student loves and which he finds
in the obscure corners of the great refer
ence collection. and not at all times in the
active. popular circulating library.
The Washington library will serve its
best uses tor reference and reading room
purposes to the young people whom it will
attract especially in the evening from the
temptations Of the streets. and who would
be abashed by the splendors of the compar-
atiyely inaccessible Congressional Library
For this purpose also the library must be
located in the very heart of the city, and
cannot without diminution of it's useful
ness be transferred to a quiet corner in the
fashionable northwest. In time there will
undoubtedly be branch circulating libraries
as in Boston, for the convenience of outly-
ing sections, but the main collection should
be near the center of the city.
Will Congress and the people of Wash
irgton permit the opportunity presented by
Mr. Carnegie's offer to be banded back
ward and forward by real estate specula-
tors or abstract theorists until it falls to
the ground and is lost to the community?
Misnomer.