Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-21
BUTTf:'S PUBLIC LIBRARY
Its Early History, AdverSities and TriumphS--Larra
bees Gift and Kirkpatrick EndoWment---RevieW
Of Montana Libraries ~

the library book fund amounted to
500, O54.
In April, 1892, the library ordinance.
drawn by City Attorney Cotter, (now of
Mediation & Cotter) and approved by the
city council was submitted to the people
at the regular spring election and adopt
ed. Signing this ordinance and making
it law was, perhaps, the last act of May
or Mueller, who Eel out of office about
this time. Upon the new administration.
headed by Lee Mantle as mayor CATER
wards senator) devolved the duty of or
gnnizing and developing the public IL
Ibrar-.
The first board Of trustees of the IL
fbrary consisted of Robert H. Paxson,
president; DR.. j. W. Howard, secretary,
r.. q. Dugan, Judge M. kirkpatrick and
Clinton III. Moore. Their first act was to
invite John f. Davies, assistant Of the
'St. Louis public library, to take the posi-
ton of librarian. Their action was rati-
fled by the council. Mr.. Davis came
on from st. Louis and was taken into the
council of the trustees.
In July succeeding the spring election
another election was held, and the peo-
pile voted to bond the city to the amount
of $50, 900 for the purpose of construct
ing a library building. A special commit
tee of the city council took hold and
selected II. NJ. Patterson as architect and
superintendent. The location finally
agreed upon is, perhaps, the best in
the city, corner of Broadway and Acad-
envy, one short block from Park street
and one long block from Main street.
The building has a frontage of 70 feet
on Broadway, and the ground was
bought at a cost of $275.5O per foot.
ADvERsITIEs AND IRIUMPHs.
Various mishaps occurred to delay the
completion of the building. and it was
not until Feb. Z. 1894. that the library
was opened to the public with IA, S04 vol
umes on the shelves, and from the first
the patronage was astonishing. Nearly
a thousand applicants for the home use
or books registered the first month, and
during the first full library year 81, 900
volumes We're issued for home use and
$4,000 for library use, estimated at that
time to be nearly two books for every
inhabitant of Silver Bow county The
next years issue was even more aston
ishing. According to library statistics
published by the Federal Department
of Education in 1895, there were only
about 40 Libraries out of 1000 in the Unit
ed States that reported as large an is
sue.
The defalcations of the city treasurer,
discovered early in May of 1896, tied up
all of the library funds, and seriously
crippled its work. No books were or
dered for a period of six months and no
hooks We're bound for the same time
Nevertheless, this adversely, together
with the terrible financial stringency re-
sulting from the panic of 1898, had little
effect in relaxing the efforts OF the frie Ids
of the public library. The work of per-
fecting the institution went steadily for
ward.
The building containing the public Ii
brary is also called the Auditorium. It's
exterior is plain enough on the Academy
street sid 10 impress the beholder with
its m~assiveness and strength; artistic
enough in architectural design on the
Broadway frontage to the at
tention of every visitor to Butte, no mat
ter from whence he comes. 1t is easily
one of the finest buildings in the inter-
mountain country.