| ARLINGTON HILLS BRANCH LIBRARY | |
Address 1105 Greenbrier Street
Built-Remodeled 1917-1988-1997
Square Ft 7,922
Hours/week* 51.5
Days/open/week Six
Materials Budget $53, 680
Collection Size 32,558
Books:
Adult 10, 743
Juvenile 16, 434
Total Circulation 97,465
Adult 47,050 (48%)
Juvenile 50,415 (52%)
Circulation/FTE 18,390
Total Information 5,434
Information/Ref FTE 1,449
In-House Materials Use 19,448
FTEs Public Service* 5.3
Gate Count 114,964
Source: St. Paul Public Libraries
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Ready to shelve the Arlington Hills Library?
Consultant likely to suggest new edition in Payne-Phalen
Scott Nichols
news editor
Andrew Carnegie may well have been professionally unfriendly to the working man, but the public libraries he funded have helped educate and entertain thousands of average folks around the country.
The Carnegie libraries built in St. Paul with the steel magnate's turn-of-the-century fortune - the Riverview, St. Anthony Park and Arlington Hills libraries, all constructed in 1917 - survive to this day, noted for their historical significance as much as their classic architecture.
Unfortunately, what these libraries aren't known for is their adaptability to the modern age.
As more and more libraries morph from book repositories into information clearinghouses, meeting places and even cafés, it's the Carnegie classics like Arlington Hills at 1105 Greenbrier St. that have the toughest challenge.
"It's a fabulous older example of a library but it's very difficult to get a modern-day usage out of that building," says St. Paul Public Libraries Directors Melanie Huggins.
So difficult, in fact, that it might be decommissioned as a library space years down the road as funds become available to build a new East Side library.
That's what may well be the suggestion in a report coming out as early as next week by architecture firm Holzman Moss, commissioned to figure out exactly what needs to be done to bring the city's Central Library and 12 branches up to speed with modernity. All options are open as Holzman Moss considers everything in the buildings, from the ways patrons use them to carpeting and heating and ventilation systems.
Already, says Huggins, a lot of thought has gone into the potential for combining a new East Side library with other parks or social services uses at the site of the current Arlington Rec Center two blocks north.
Although the city renovated the St. Anthony Park branch in the St. Anthony neighborhood a few years ago, and still hopes a renovation of Riverview (on the city's West Side) is possible, Arlington Hills is in a special situation.
Why?
It's the number of people that use it. It turns out there's a lot of us. In fact, the library serves more kindergarteners to 14-year-olds than any other library in the city, according to Huggins.
"St. Anthony Park...functions pretty well for the neighborhood it serves," she says. "Our preliminary assumption is we can make Riverview work without expanding it greatly. We don't think that's the case with Arlington, given the population it serves."
The move to decommission Arlington Hills library wouldn't be much of a surprise to one group that depends mightily on it for meeting space at least four times a month: the District 5 Planning Council.
As District 5 executive director Leslie McMurray notes, it's clear the library can't cope with the numbers of children who depend on it, not hard to understand given that one in three people in her City District is now under the age of 18.
But it's already pretty clear that whatever's eventually done to build a new East Side library, the old Carnegie library won't ever be demolished, even if it is decommissioned.
"The building is a landmark," McMurray says. "It's been a resource through the generations."
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