To try to make the world in some way better than you found itis to have a noble motive in life.

-Andrew Carnegie

Along Ridge Road sits the City of Lackawanna’s public library—a wonderful building completed in 1922. Constructed in the Colonial style, its interior features magnificent oak woodwork throughout. It has a quiet demeanor that befits its role as a place of relaxation, reading and studying. Aside from its interior and exterior features, the Lackawanna Library has the added distinction of being one of the last Carnegie libraries built in America. Funds were first secured to build this public place for learning on May 3, 1917, and it was completed in July 1922. This past year marked the 100th anniversary of the Lackawanna Library and, while it still serves the public in a valuable way, its connection to the steel industry is long past, but not forgotten. 

The story begins with an immigrant from Scotland who dreamt of hard work and brazen business decisions, and culminates with a captain of industry’s legacy of charity that will live on in America forever. It is, perhaps, the quintessential “rags to riches” story. That “captain of industry” was Andrew Carnegie. 

Andrew was born in Dunfermline, Ireland, to parents who toiled in the weaving business, a dying industry as the market for fine damask linen goods continued to tighten in the 1830s and 1840s. As a result, the Carnegies decided to leave their home. They began the hard trek to America with a transatlantic passage to New York City in 1848. From there, the family moved up the Hudson River to Albany and the Erie Canal and then across the state all the way to Buffalo. 

The Carnegies were a bit different from many of the other families who travelled this familiar route west in that they knew their final destination. They had family in Allegheny City, PA, a municipality along the north shore of the Allegheny River, where it met the Ohio.  In 1907, Allegheny City was annexed by the growing city of Pittsburgh and is now known as the North Side. Thus, they didn’t linger in Buffalo long but boarded a steamer bound for Cleveland, from whence they would make their way down to the Ohio River and their final destination.

As a youth in Allegheny City, Andrew worked as a bobbin boy and boiler attendant. He saw the prosperous opportunities in the offices, however, and set his sights on becoming a full-time bookkeeper. While working to improve himself, Andrew interviewed to become a messenger boy for the O’Reilly Telegraph Company. With his newfound successful job, Carnegie also had a passion for self-growth. To be a man of the world, he realized he had to read more. “The wants of his family” left him “no money to spend on books.” Unlike modern practices, to borrow books from most libraries at that time cost money. To be a regular subscriber of an ordinary library could cost as much as 75 cents per month, or six dollars per year. 

A wealthy manufacturer, Colonel James Anderson of Allegheny City, established the first quasi-public library. Apprentices and working boys were allowed access on Saturday afternoons to borrow a book for the week. It was so busy that the library was expanded, and Anderson’s holdings were given a larger space, but control of the library was granted to the Alleghany City Select and City Council. As costs increased, a two-dollar annual fee was reinstated for working boys. In response, Andrew wrote to the editor of the Pittsburgh Dispatch in 1853: 

Mr. Editor: 

Believing that you take a deep interest in whatever tends to elevate, instruct and improve the youth of this country, I am induced to call your attention to the following. You will remember that some time ago Mr. Anderson (a gentleman of this city) bequested a large sum of money to establish and support a Library for working boys and apprentices residing here. It has been in successful operation for over a year, scattering precious seeds among us, and although fallen “by the wayside and in stony places,” not a few have found good ground. Every working boy has been freely admitted only requiring his parents or guardian to become surety. But its means of doing good have recently been greatly circumscribed by new directors who refuse to allow any boy who is not learning a trade and bound for a stated time to become a member. I rather think that the new directors have misunderstood the generous donor’s intentions. It can hardly be thought that he meant to exclude boys employed in stores merely because they are not bound. 

--A Working Boy though not bound 

After his letter was published, there was a response from the librarian in the next issue of the Dispatch.  In the reply, Carnegie was informed of his mistakes in his public critique of the facility. Correcting him first on the founding date of the library—1849, and not 1848 as Carnegie had stated—it further elaborated that Anderson had only lent 2,000 volumes to the institution, but no money. Carnegie wrote back, insisting that there was money bequeathed. Then, in a clever turn, he observed that the fact that he was mistaken on the year only furthered his point that boys like him needed access to public libraries. The library was forced to capitulate and opened its doors to all boys.

Among his other jobs, Carnegie had worked for Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The two would develop a friendship that would last for the rest of their lives. By the age of 30, Andrew had business interests in ironworks, Great Lakes steamers, railroads and oil wells. During the Civil War, he found himself drafted, but paid someone $850 to fight for the Union in his place, which was a common practice among those with the means to do so. He left his post at the railroad in 1865 at the end of the Civil War. By the 1870s, he co-founded his first steel company and, by 1892, he had consolidated his multiple companies to form the Carnegie Steel Corporation.  This was his crowning business achievement, accomplished through the innovative means of vertical consolidation or integration. 

By the late 1800s, Andrew Carnegie had amassed a fortune and expressed his thoughts on the proper distribution of that money—giving financial support to noble causes.  In 1887, he married Louise Whitfield of New York City. She signed a prenuptial agreement, which allowed Carnegie to give away most of his fortune. 

In 1889, he published a theory for distributing his money which became known as the “Gospel of Wealth.” In it, Andrew spoke about the changes in civilization due to technology and innovations. He described how daily life had changed and how the means of distributing money led to a distinct separation between rich and poor. Further, he posed the question, “what is the proper mode of administering wealth after the laws upon which civilization is founded have thrown it into the hands of the few?” Ultimately, he believed that a person upon whom financial fortune had smiled should take pains to give back to society. His gospel he ended with, “the man who dies rich dies disgraced.” Carnegie proposed that the rich dedicate their surplus wealth to funding schools and colleges, libraries, hospitals, public parks, concert halls, public baths, church buildings and other institutions as they saw fit. 

Andrew Carnegie subsequently began to give away his fortune. His money would go to the betterment of societies around the world. He built colleges, schools, church organs and nonprofit organizations. But the most tangible examples of his philanthropy were libraries. Through his generosity, there were 2,509 libraries built around the world, with 1,679 of them in the United States.

By 1911, an aging Carnegie established the Carnegie Corporation of New York.  He would serve as the corporation’s first president and put his remaining fortune towards education and international peace. It was through this organization that correspondence began with Lackawanna’s Clara Whealen.

Born Clara Kinne in South Buffalo in 1869, Clara attended school until age 14, after which she received instruction through a tutor.  In 1895, she married William H. Whealen and was living in Deadwood, SD, but by 1905 had returned to Western New York, settling in the section of the Town of West Seneca that would soon become the City of Lackawanna.  Interested in education and the arts, Clara became the chair of the Pioneer Study Club, the first women’s club to be formed in Lackawanna.  She also designed the city’s seal and received a scholarship in art school for a monument titled “Art & Utility” located in Forest Lawn Cemetery.  

One of the first efforts to secure a library for the City of Lackawanna had been initiated by early mayor John Widmer. But when the city decided to seek money from the Carnegie Corporation, then-mayor John A. Toomey approached Clara Whealen, described as one of the city’s most enthusiastic citizens, to aid in the effort.

There was a process for requesting the funding.  According to the Carnegie Corporation, “all business pertaining to the donation of libraries [must] be carried on through mail.” Personal inquiries were only granted to a few select individuals. Thus, in January 1914, Clara Whealen wrote to the Carnegie Corporation on behalf of the women of the Pioneer Study Club of Lackawanna, asking for assistance in creating a public library—a Carnegie Library. An application was also sent to the corporation to secure money to construct such an institution. Meanwhile, a site would be specifically chosen and plans made in anticipation of the endowment.  

The Carnegie Corporation informed Whealen that funds could not be secured unless there was proof that the community would support this public institution after its construction. A proposal was made to the Lackawanna Common Council and, in December 1915, the Council agreed that a library was needed for their community. In order to fulfill the corporation’s requirements for support, the city officials initially pledged to add $2,000 per year to the budget to support the Carnegie Library. 

After some additional back and forth on details, on May 3, 1917, the Carnegie Corporation sent a letter in which it formally agreed to provide Lackawanna with the sum of $30,000 with which to erect a Carnegie Library.  Such funding was predicated on the city’s agreement “by resolution of Council to maintain a Free Public Library at a cost of not less than Three Thousand Dollars.” Further, the letter required that the city levy such tax “forthwith for the first year so that on completion of the building there will be a fund for the initial purchase of books and other reading matter, and provides a suitable site for the building.”

In order for the deal to go through, however, Whealen and Lackawanna needed to move in a timely fashion.  The Corporation asked that they be provided with tentative plans for the building, which they needed to approve prior to any expenditures. They also made clear that there was an expiration date on the deal, stating that “if the conditions prescribed have not been performed within two years the Corporation may fix a limit of time within which the conditions must be performed, and if the conditions be not performed within such period then this promise may be revoked.”  The promise of funding had been achieved, but a shovel would not hit the ground for another several years.

One issue delaying progress involved the selection of a site.  On March 30, 1917, a letter from the City of Lackawanna had informed the Carnegie Corporation that a site had been selected on Ridge Road, one of the city’s most heavily traveled routes. Furthermore, the letter informed the corporation that the city had also secured 1,500 volumes to supply the bookshelves. The site that had been selected was occupied by a burial ground for the City of Buffalo. Known as Howard Cemetery (Limestone Hill), it contained both paid plots and pauper graves and was more commonly known as Potters Field. The City of Buffalo had authorized the purchase of this land, but it wasn’t until February 11, 1919, that authorization was received from the state for the removal of the bodies. Mayor John Toomey of Lackawanna and Mayor George Buck of Buffalo agreed to have the bodies removed and cremated. It would be the only sanitary and Christian option. The ashes would then be placed in a ceremonial concrete vault.

It would, perhaps, have been logical and efficient for Whealen and the city to secure an architect to develop plans for the institution, as required by the Corporation, while waiting for the site issues to be solved, but for whatever reason this did not happen and the clock continued to tick.

In March 1920, the City of Lackawanna established a board of trustees for the library, and it was no surprise that Mrs. Clara Whealen was named as president of the board.  Yet it appears that it was not until December of that year that architects Bley & Lyman (known for designing numerous other buildings in Western New York, perhaps most notably Buffalo’s Saturn Club) were commissioned to draw up the required plans.

More time passed, and on March 3, 1921, the New York State Assembly authorized the City of Lackawanna an expenditure of $100,000 to clean up the library site and grade the land. As a result, the Carnegie Corportion felt that their $30,000 was no longer needed. Clara Whealen wrote a letter pleading to secure the funds, however, explaining that the state money was being spent to clean up the land and also create space for a clinic. The library funds would still be needed and in her words, “…the library is the university of the people.”

Though the May 3, 1917, letter had clearly stated that the Carnegie money was restricted to construction of the library building, Whealen made a request for additional funds to be allocated for furnishings.  Carnegie secretary James Bertram responded with clarification that the previous promise of funds was to cover the building “complete, ready for occupancy.”  After further negotiations, however, the Corporation settled on $32,000 in support, in exchange for an additional promise of $2,000 from the City of Lackawanna. Finally, on June 14, 1921, ground was broken for the construction of Lackawanna’s Carnegie library. By July 18, the foundation was finished and the bricklayers were hard at work. After almost a year, on July 12, 1922, a newspaper article celebrated the library’s near completion.  It was described as “a handsome brick building, finished and furnished in simple taste.”  The opening ceremonies were held soon after, on July 19.

A century later, the Lackawanna Public Library building continues to serve its community. This beautiful structure would not have been possible without the perseverance of Mrs. Clara Whealen and the philanthropic efforts of Andrew Carnegie. Sadly, the man whose corporation provided the funds to build this structure would pass away on August 11, 1919, nearly three years prior to the completion of one of the last libraries to be built through his generosity.