Bisbee daily review., 1906-05-16
Demolition of Old Library Building Will Begin Next
 Monday,
BUILT IN 1881 BY
 DR. JAMES DOUGLAS.
Structure ito Be } Torn Down Closely Linked With History
 and Development of Bisbee.
 Destruction Begins Monday.

Actual work of demolition will be- gin on the Library building next Mon day morning. The tearing down of this structure, which was to have be- gun this week, has been delayed be- cause of Ieveral reasons, Between now and next Monday the books in the library will be moved to rooms s and 9 of the Central school building. where the library will be located while the new structure is being erected.
 Built in 1881, the destruction of this building and the erection in Its place of a three-story structure, to cost between s60.000 and s70000. will remove the cradle in which Bisbee was rocked in it's infancy and remove forever the place in which by far the greater part of Bisbee's development was planned. Realizing the needs of the miners, who were then without single place to spend their evenings, except in sa- Icons, Dr. James Douglas decided to erect a free library for the men em- ployed by the Copper Queen Company.
 Not long after he first took the matter in hand, Dr. Eouglas had a force of men at work, clearing away for the foundation for the building. To make room 1t was necessary to move a lumber yard owned by George Preston and Mrs. Christy's boarding house.
 At the time of its erection the Li- brary building was the most imposing in the city. It was built before any of the Protestant churches in Bisbee, hut subsequent to the erection of the Catholic church, which was the first religious edifice in Bisbee.
 Not long after. the building was in use 1t was discovered that it was too small, the number of miners that flock ed to the building being even greater than Dr. Douglas had anticipated, and he then had the building made wider.
 Long before the building had been completed. Dr. Douglas sent several hundred books from New York. To give the miners the use of them pending the new quarters. the volumes were kept in the rear of a store that was then run by Mrs. NJ. Crossey. It stood where the northwest corner of the big Copper Queen store building now stands.
 Tn the early days the room on the second floor of the Library building was practically the only meeting place in Bisbee. and every important gather ing was held there. This has been the case until more recent years. and has continued though the city has an opera house.
 From the front steps of the building the greatest political gatherings the city has seen have been held, thousands have at different times
 stood on the porch floor to watch drill inq contests. in which brawnv miners disniaved their skill and muscle. as well as to watch passing processions
 The Library building is but one of the few buildings in Bisbee that al most every man, woman and child | in the city has visited. either to look i over the nagazines draw out an in | tereeting book. or tc attend some re Geious. fraternal, commercial or DO 1 liticaI gathering on the second floor 1 The s,nslI ha~innine that Dr. Dong l las made in 1881 is now to develop int
 one Of the handsomest lihrarv build l 'n"s in the west in which will be ouar
 tered postoffice for 15Nn0 people and two floors devoted exclusively tr
 reading rooms. game rooms anf
 shnlvos that will carry thousands o | vnlures
 It has not been built bv Andrew
 Carnegie. either: Dr. Douglas is the
 Toving spirit. It was said hv a mine vesterdav that the new institution
 should be called the Dr. Douglas u
 bIary.