Sometimes you see things on the internet you wish you had never seen. And the problem is that once you’ve seen a tragedy, it can’t be unseen. For instance, the sight of an abandoned and rotting American library wasn’t something I ever wanted to see or thought could exist.
Detroit’s Mark Twain Public Library was built in 1939 when the original Carnegie Library was torn down to widen roads. It was built as a regional library, and was the second largest in the Detroit System. It was beautiful. Arched ceilings framed elegant spaces for community gatherings and its lofty architecture made it a favorite destination for the community. Children who grew up walking to the library remembered its vast coolness on summer days, the high-backed leather chairs by the fireplace, and the names of the librarians who made it feel like home. But in 1997, the library was closed in order to repair a long ignored roof leak. They told the community it would be closed for two years. A special millage (tax) was even approved and collected for its repair, and yet it appears that work never began. Oddly, most of the equipment and books were left behind, giving it an eerily apocalyptic look, and the building was boarded up. An annex library was temporarily opened in the basement of a local church, but it was tiny in comparison to its namesake. Unfortunately, the promised two years turned into more than a decade. Finally, portions of the roof actually caved in, and black mold flourished where learning once had. The Mark Twain Public Library was demolished in 2011 for $200,000. No architectural salvage was attempted, and no recycling of materials or fixtures was considered. Soon, the small annex library was also closed.
The pictures of this American tragedy are not unique in economically depressed Detroit. Many factories, hospitals, theaters, book depositories and other buildings were abandoned as the automobile industry dried up and Detroit’s population plummeted from a high of 1.8 million to 700,000 in only 50 years, leaving tax-supported services scrambling to deal with an outsized and aging infrastructure. In 2013 Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.
The uniqueness of Detroit’s situation makes it easy to distance ourselves from this nightmare and helps us believe that it could never happen to us. After all, we don’t have many abandoned buildings. Our city isn’t nearly bankrupt. We certainly want to believe it couldn’t happen here. But there are lessons to be learned, nonetheless.
The leak that swallowed the Mark Twain Library didn’t happen overnight. If it had been fixed when first discovered, might library have been kept open in 1997? The devil is in the details, and this time the detail was maintenance. Hindsight is 20/20 and it’s true that if it wasn’t the roof leak it might have been something else. But the end result of books and equipment left to rot suggests that the details were not and had not been attended to.
So what can we do to avoid a future like this?
- Library and city officials must pay attention to the details. Decay in a city is as destructive as a leak in the library roof. Spend what it takes to fix it now, so that tomorrow it won’t ruin us all.
- Libraries must budget strategically, even when it hurts. We are the stewards of this resource for the future and every decision counts.
- We need to stay involved with our local and state government and be a part of the process. They need to understand why libraries matter and the value we add.
- We need to remember that the “pie” is only so big, and there are many needs. Schools, libraries, and economic development must all succeed. If we sacrifice any one of these for another, our vision for Greenwood will fade away.
In the early months of 2012 we walked through our building trying not to imagine what it would look like for our community if our doors closed. At that time there was a good chance that it would, and the heartbreaking possibility fueled our resolve to change the future. We rolled the budget back to 2006 levels and began again.
I’m so grateful I didn’t come across the photos of the Mark Twain Library until just recently. Even then, they shook me up. It is true that sometimes libraries must close. But losing a resource that enriches, empowers, and educates a community is a tragedy every single time, and the community is always poorer for it. There is no doubt that funding is an increasing challenge for all tax funded entities. All of us feel our revenue is being chipped away dollar b
y dollar, and that the demand for and cost of our services continues to increase. But unless cities, schools, and libraries see themselves as partners rather than competitors, we will lose the battle for Greenwood. Let’s take the long view, plan for our future together, and learn the lessons of Detroit and of the Mark Twain Library.
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GPL is planning an exhibit later this year with the work of Brandon P. Davis, whose haunting photos of the Mark Twain Library can viewed here. The first picture you saw at the top of this entry is an example of his work.