The Committee Reports On Carnegie Library Site

     In view of the discussion in regard to the Carnegie Library site as selected by the Board of Education, we publish both the minority and majority reports:
               MINORITY REPORT.
     Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 4, 1903.
To the Honorable the Board of Education:
     Your committee, appointed to recommend a site and an architect for the Carnegie Library, has had both questions under advisement. Several reputable and capable architects have expressed their willingness to submit sketches for the consideration of the committee.  All, however, have asked that the location of the building, as to situation, outlook and surroundings, be determined, in order that they may prepare sketches of real value. It seems wise, therefore, that the matter of location be decided.
     The ideal site for a public library includes many essential elements. It must be centrally and conveniently located. It must be large enough, not only to comfortably hold the building itself, but also to insure against the danger of light famine. Undoubtedly the last condition would be best met by a corner lot. However, the appropriation at our command is so small that we cannot consider the purchase of so desirable a site. If money were abundant the Goodrich property on State street would strongly appeal to us and either the Hawkins property corner of Liberty and Fourth streets, or the Walsh premises, corner of Fifth and Ann streets, might be a possibility.
     Besides the ones already named, several other sites have been considered. The first of these is known as the "Ladies Library property." For many reasons this is an eligible and desirable location for the proposed building. However, in common with the Bach and Kearney property on Washington street, between State and Division streets, and the property on State street, north of Harris Hall, it has the disadvantage of being an inside lot, of limited street frontage. It lacks, too, the advantages of accessibility, practicability and economy of administration. 
     A combination of building for library and city has been proposed. Could such a plan be carried through, it would reduce the first cost somewhat and decrease the expense of maintenance, but probably would not be satisfactory to the donor.
     All things considered, your committee favors the plan of placing the new library on the High school grounds, at the corner of Washington and Thayer streets. The reasons for this decision are as follows:
I. Economy in First Cost.--By utilizing land already owned by the school district and not required for school purposes, the price of a site will be saved and this amount may be added to enhance the beauty and conveniences of the building.
     While it is true that the property owned by the Ladies Library would involve no actual outlay of money, yet in the end the result is the same. By converting that property into cash and adding it to the endowment fund of the Ladies association, the district and the ladies themselves will be annually the gainer by that much extra in interest. Or the sum realized from the sale of the Huron street property might be added to the building fund and the building made more pretentious. 
II. Economy of Administration.--Placing the building on the High school ground will permit the use of the heating plant and janitor services of that institution. It becomes at once apparent that the annual saving in heating and care, not to count the saving in first cost by the omission of a furnace, boiler and chimney, will be used for the purchase of books.
     Our taxes are already high and every penny deducted from the annual budget will be most gratefully appreciated by our tax payers.
III. Central Location.--The center of the population of our city is said to be the corner of Liberty and Division streets, and rapidly moving eastward. Taking the High school as the center, with a radius equal to the distance from that school to the intersection of Hill streets and Washtenaw avenue, a circle drawn will intersect Broadway between Mill street and the Boulevard, Miller avenue at Gott street, west Huron street at Seventh, west Liberty street at Sixth, and Packard at east University. It must be conceded that our predecessors very happily anticipated the future when they located the High School and that today it is very nearly, if not quite, the center of population and the geographical center of our city.
IV. Accessibility and Availability.--Many of our library readers are students in the High school. Many of the home readers depend upon the students supplying their needs. The street car line passes within one block of the corner under consideration and so, for all classes, the proposed site is accessible and available. 
V. Relief of High School Building.--Our High school is crowded and al available space is more than utilized. Should the new library be built at a distance, even of a few blocks, from the High school, it will be necessary to retain the reference books. By the plan we propose, the High school will be entirely relieved and the space now occupied by the library will be, for other purposes, a welcome addition to that crowded institution.
     Furthermore, the directors' room of the new building may be used as a meeting place for the superintendent and teachers.
VI. The Reputation of the High School Enhanced.--Our High school is essentially the preparatory school of the university. Already its reputation has brought many students from out of town and many families, by reason of the excellence of our system, have become permanent residents. The influence of the Carnegie Library, the Ann Arbor school district library, will be an added inducement to bring foreign students to our school. It will be looked upon, and justly so, as a part of our high school equipment; this enrichment of our methods must bear weight with cultured parents in the choice of a place of education for their sons and daughters. 
VII. The School a Social Center.--One of the latest phases of the educational movement, is the idea of the school as a social institution. The school should be the center of community life, for it is the most important factor in American civilization. By means of locating the Public Library, or peoles' university, as it is often termed, on the High school grounds, the social and educational forces will be brought into closer communication and co-operation. 
VIII. Youth the Time to Form Habits of Reading.--It is the opinion of your committee that the use of good books should be made as easy and attractive as possible to the young people in the public schools. Habits are formed in early life and this is especially true of the habit of reading. We believe it would be little short of a moral crime to take from our children the opportunity and the privilege of making the acquaintance of literature. By moving the library to the business center to make it easy for the physically lazy to become intellectually fat, is to make the next generation lean in culture if not in person. If library privileges are to be made easy for any class of people, it should be the youth of our city in the formative period of life. To remove the books and the atmosphere of the library from the High school would seriously cripple the institution and lower its standard of efficiency. To your committee the consummation of such a plan would seem nothing less than a calamity. 
     Conclusion.--For these, and other reasons which might be adduced, on the grounds of economy, practicability and sentiment, your committee favors the southeast corner of the High school grounds as the location for the Carnegie library. It is therefore recommended that this site be selected and that the architects be instructed to draw their plans accordingly. 
     Respectfully submitted,
     ROYAL S. COPELAND,
     W. D. HARRIMAN.
-----
               MAJORITY REPORT
     At a meeting held Dec. 3, 1903, the majority of the members present of the Carnegie Library committee voted to select the site of the Ladies Library association for the following reasons:
I. Library authorities are universally agreed that the public library should be in the center of the business district.
     This library is not only for the High school but for the ward school children, and the people of the city.
    These libraries are usually used one-third by the pupils of the high school, one-third by the children below the high school and the rest by the people outside the schools.
     Therefore its location should be nearest to accommodating all ages, which this lot does.
II. As we have only $20,000 to be used to store a library soon to be 28,000 books, we have no money to expend on imposing fronts of length. Therefore the Ladies Library lot with its 57 feet and over offers a fine opportunity to concentrate what we can afford for outside decoration  on a front which may be worthy of the city without spreading it out too cheaply over a large street front.
     At the same time the depth of the lot, 132 feet, gives us plenty of space for growth of book stacks in the rear, for the future.
     Its locations gives a fine opportunity for a north light reading room, the best light to be obtained. As this lot faces the broad street this light can never be cut off.
     Therefore, architecturally and physically this lot is the best available.
III. This lot is offered as a gift to the school district, if we take it for a building. Therefore the district gains some $4,000 in valuable property in a beautiful residence section and near to the business section. 
IV. The Ladies Library association offered this and it was substantially accepted by this board, therefore good faith to them calls for the carrying out of this agreement.
V. Wherever the library is erected a new boiler, radiators, steam-pipes and flues will have to be installed; the same amount of heat and light will be needed for the given space occupied no matter on what street it is; we pay our janitors for care of buildings by the room, hence that would be no different.
     The only difference would be in getting some one to look after the fires. This would not be very much taken in connection with janitor's services as in the school buildings the same man does both services. This factor may not be considered a permanent one for opportunity will come at no distant day to get the heat from the city building or a central heating plant as these are rapidly coming into cities of this size, selling heat at less than it can be supplied in the building.
     A central location will secure such heating facilities sooner than would a site more distantly removed from business houses.
     Therefore there is nothing to be gained on the score of permanent economy in taking any other site.
VI. This site is nearest to the following schools: W. S. Perry, Philip Bach, Christian Mack, Elisha Jones, and Fifth Ward having respectively 403, 302, 303, 226 and 138 pupils. These are growing at the rate of one new room each year, while the High school only gained four scholars last year.
OTHER SITE CONSIDERATIONS.
     As the High school grounds are recommended some thoughts may be considered why that is not a good place.
I. It is not central enough to the book-using people, as it is unfortunate in having a great part of the territory east of it taken up by the park, the cat-hole, the hospitals, the observatory and the cemetery, all of which places do not bring many book readers. This is nothing derogatory to that beautiful part of the city but shows fewer patrons of the library.
II. If the building were put on the High school grounds too much of our $20,000 will have to be spent in the outside decoration of four fronts.
III. If it is placed there the development of the future may make its location unfortunate, wherever it may be on the grounds. Some day a large new building on the south end of the main building would shut it off from State street, should it be on the southeast corner.
IV. If it is placed on the High school grounds it would be considered too much a High school annex and not a library of all the scholars of the city and all the people of the city. The outside would not feel so free to use it as it would not be so distinctively theirs. We must consider that the great mass of our city scholars do not go through the High school. Hence we must consider the primary scholars, their convenience and interests. These would be hurt in more ways than one by putting the library up on the High school grounds.
V. All the public libraries in town are now on State street. They should be scattered more.
VI. Library statistics show that the poor people use the library more than the well to do, first, because the latter have more books in the houses, and second, because the poor do not have so many diversions and entertainments. It is part of the good a library does to brighten the lives of those who have it rough, to broaden, elevate and instruct them, thus making them better citizens.
     No one will deny in Ann Arbor the Ladies Library lot will attract more, and be more convenient to the poorer people than the High school lot.
     The business men down town who pay a large part of the taxes have a right to be considered for their convenience and that of their employees.
     ANNA B. BACH,
     JUNIUS E. BEAL,
     ALICE H. DOUGLASS.