Public Library, Burlington, New Jersey

[LIB11183] - The Burlington Library was chartered by King George II and is one of the oldest libraries in the country. This is the second library building and was funded by public subscription in 1864.  [Website]

1922 Billings Library, University of Vermont, Burlington

[LIB10.020]

Once the home to UVM's main library until its move to Bailey library, Billings was designed by one of the country's most influential architects of the era, Henry Hobson Richardson. After the library left Billings, it became UVM's main student center until the Dudley H. Davis Center was finished in 2007. Billings will return it to its library roots when UVM's special collections (along with the Holocaust Studies Department) move in. In Billings you'll find a hallowed atmosphere with large windows, wood floors, high ceilings and soft couches popular with students hitting the books. Cook Commons, located one floor down, is a constantly busy spot, with an open dining area and a large cafeteria.

Photo courtesy of University of Vermont

[http://www.uvm.edu]

1905 Carnegie Library, Burlington, Vermont

[LIB9934] Posted from Burlington on November 23, 1905 and addressed to Miss Fannie Van Sickler of New Haven, Connecticut.

Carnegie Library, Burlington, Vermont

[LIB6170] - By 1901 the library had outgrown its location in the old City Hall building. In the same year, Andrew Carnegie made a gift of $50,000 for the construction of a new library. On August 17th, 1904, the new library was dedicated and opened for business. For almost 70 years the Carnegie building served the community well, but in 1973 the building sustained structural damage due to the settling of the northwest corner of the foundation (where poor quality material used to fill the former railroad ravine was settling). The collection was moved that year to temporary quarters in Contois Auditorium in City Hall, then a few months later to the basement of Memorial Auditorium.

In the early to mid 1970's there was some pressure from the citizenry to demolish the Carnegie building and rebuild on the site. In response, a group of Burlington residents formed The Committee to Save the Fletcher Free Library Building. A petition was circulated, and as a result, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May of 1974. In 1977, an E.D.A. grant of $234,000 made possible the stabilization and external repair of the building. [From the library website]

1958 Billings Library, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont

[LIB0560] - The Billings Library and the Ira Allen Chapel, College Row.

Carnegie Library, Burlington, Vermont

This vintage old postcard (c1915) was published by The Hugh C. Leighton Co., Manufacturers, Portland Maine, no. 20006
[LIB1230]

In Burlington Volume II, authors Mary Ann DiSpiritoand David Robinson continue the detailed look at this intriguing Vermont city. Discovered by Samuel deChamplain in 1609, the next few centuries saw Burlington evolve from a wilderness to a small settlement, and eventually, flourish into Vermont’s largest city. Situated on the shores of Lake Champlain, Burlington’s waterfront area became the early center of commerce in the late eighteenth century with the rise of the lumber industry and the use of ships for transport. By 1865, when Burlington was incorporated as a city, the industries thatprofoundly shaped Burlington’s personality were already well established—these included lumber, textiles, shipping, and the railroad, as well as higher education. [Source: Arcadia Publishing]

Public Library BURLINGTON MA

[LIB0704]

The consolidation of the town's schools into a single new building (the Union School) provided an opportunity to move to a larger building. When a former summer resident, Edward Barker, donated a sum of money to the town for library purposes in 1896, there were sufficient funds to convert the old Center School (now the Burlington Town Museum) at the corner of Cambridge and Bedford Streets into a library. The Library and Reading Room, as it then was known, opened on June 29, 1897 and remained there for over seventy years.

[Source: http://www.burlingtonpubliclibrary.org/libraryhistory.htm]

1949 May Memorial Library, Burlington, North Carolina

[LIB0573] The library building on Spring Street was first constructed in 1918 as a post office. In 1938 it was purchased by Mr. W.H. May and given to the city to become a public library in memory of Mr. May's deceased wife.

The library website has a great section devoted to postcards of Alamance County. Click here!