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Beal Site Favored At Library Hearing: Audience Hostile To Board

Beal Site Favored At Library Hearing: Audience Hostile To Board image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
January
Year
1956
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Audience Hostile To Board:

Beal Site Favored At Library Hearing

Some 350 persons last night declared they want the new $600,000 Ann Arbor Public Library building put on the Beal property or the northeast corner of E. William St. and S. Fifth Ave.

Only one person at the public hearing- said he wanted the library built between 627 and 715 Miller Ave., a West Park site being considered by the Ann Arbor Board of Education.

No decision as to where the library will be built was made.

The voting last night came about midway in a stormy two-hour and 45-minute hearing in Ann Arbor High School's Patten-gill Auditorium during which seven board members found themselves confronted by an almost unanimously hostile audience.

Must Build Soon

A new library building must be constructed before September, 1957, when the present library in the high school must be vacated and present library space turned over to the University.

There were group charges at the hearing of “stubbornness,” and “unclear reasons” for the board’s action in taking purchase options on the Miller Ave. site.

There was also a threat of “counter-action” of an unspecified nature if board members did not order the new library built on the Beal site.

The threat was made by Mrs. Alice D. Gilbert of 2206 Ferdon Rd., who represented 300 members of the Woman's Club of Ani Arbor.

Mrs. Gilbert said the club' membership “voted unanimously for the Beal site.” She charged the board with being “stubborn” and “looking for a loophole,” besides having “already made up your minds (against putting the library on the Beal property).”

“I think you should be criticized. I do not think you have any right to object,” she declared vehemently. “You should be swayed by the consensus of public opinion. If you go contrary to our wishes, we can organize counteraction,” Mrs. Gilbert declared.

Says Statements ‘Unfair’

Dr. Donald L. Katz, school board president, called Mrs. Gilbert’s statements “unfair.” He pointed out that the school board had called last night’s meeting to air public feeling as to where the library should be built.

“You’re asking us, we're telling you,” one unidentified spectator quipped.

An estimated 40 to 50 persons addressed comments to the school officials.

Dominic Dascola of 2251 Belmont Rd.: “The new high school (on Stadium Blvd.) in the future may be the center of Ann Arbor. Why not put the new library there? I want to save taxpayers’ money.”

L. N. Morrison of 1224 Washtenaw Ave.: “We could create a committee which would seek land for the new library with an art gallery on one side and a museum on the other. We need a civic theater. If we could get a group organized with the city we could raise donations for adequate land —for a whole community center.

Dascola in a separate statement said he formerly lived in the Miller Ave. library site area. “We had two or three cases of men loitering near there,” he said. “Would you like to send your children to a library in that area and expose them to danger?”

Bring Applause

Applause followed statements of the Beal advocates.

Dr. Katz and Trustees Albert H. Marckwardt and Mrs. Mabel Nesbit indicated they were certain that parking in the Beal area was adequate to encourage use of the library, should it be located there. Dr Katz said that about 100 off-street parking places could be provided at the Miller Ave. projected site.

The Beal property advocates jeered Katz’s remark that E. William St. parking facilities are inadequate.

Representing the Friends of the Library at the hearing was Dr. Charles Metzner, chairman. He submitted a 16-page report by Dr. John W. Hyde of the University College of Architecture and Design, who was retained by the Friends.

“With inadequate information and little time for study and faced only with the problem of comparing the two sites already purchased, the conclusion of this report is that the location of the Beal lot is infinitely superior to the location of the West Park site (Miller Ave.),” Dr. Hyde wrote.

Doubts Reason

The Rev. Henry Lewis, pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, declared to the board, “I can’t believe just parking is the reason you chose the Miller Ave. site. You must have had other reasons. The reason (parking) Dr. Katz gives is not sufficient.”

Mrs. Nesbit explained the board ordered options taken on the Miller Ave. property because it thought that the Beal site was not “big enough for Ann Arbor” which she said is undergoing a marked population growth.

She declared that the Beal site would not permit a large enough library for the city's need. “We will not be able to expand (the library),” she said.

Arthur W. Bromage of 2300 Vinewood Blvd. told the board, “I would assume you will follow the norm (putting the library in a central downtown area), but if you deviate, I would expect that you would be prepared to give us extensive reasons,” he declared.