When retired journalist Mark McDonald recently visited the St. Anthony Park Library, his sojourn marked another foray into the world of Andrew Carnegie Libraries.
In the last four years, the former New York Times reporter and foreign correspondent has visited and chronicled the history of some 150 Carnegie libraries, including three in St. Paul.
“It’s been an obsession,’’ McDonald admitted recently of his quest visiting and writing Internet tomes about Carnegie libraries.
In his first Carnegie travels, McDonald visited scores of the libraries on road trips traveling between a teaching gig at the University of Michigan and his home in New Mexico.
“To break up the monotony of the road trips, I started stopping at towns with the libraries,” McDonald said about his new hobby, noting communities with Carnegie libraries were those displaying economic success.
In the past four years, McDonald’s writings about Carnegie libraries have made him a national expert on the subject.
According to Carnegie officials, McDonald has submitted his Carnegie Libraries photos and essays to the Carnegie Libraries mapping project, which allows people to search for the nearly 1,700 libraries that Andrew Carnegie and his foundation funded across the United States.
In early February, McDonald visited the Twin Cities and saw St. Anthony Park’s Carnegie library, whose origins date back to 1916.
In a Facebook post, McDonald called the SAP library, “a smallish Carnegie Library. Though she be but little, she is fierce, and her façade looks something like a restored Rembrandt, dark and glinting and wonderful.”
McDonald noted, “St. Paul received a grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1914 to build three new libraries, and they were among the last of the 2,500 public libraries that the steel tycoon — an immigrant himself — financially supported (globally) in his lifetime.”
In an interview with the Bugle, McDonald pointed out some distinctive features of the SAP Library, including its outdoor ascending steps, two lampposts and dramatic arched glass windows. “They (the glass windows) are really striking,” he said.
McDonald added the library building emits a certain electricity and energy, one that is embraced by the community.
“It’s nice to see the energy inside the library,” he said.
To follow more about McDonald’s writings on Carnegie libraries, go to https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Ar8b31CjD/.
Scott Carlson is managing editor of the Bugle.