Recently while eating dinner at Ballard’s
Hi-Life (my favorite restaurant in Seattle), I noticed an impressive building across the street.
Upon further inspection, I found that it was an old
Carnegie Free Library building. The library opened in 1904 on Market Street and served as a branch of the Seattle Public Library until 1963 when a larger building was constructed. The plans were drawn up by Henderson Ryan featuring a men’s smoking room and women’s conversation room (!). Also of note was the 500 seat auditorium on the second floor. In 2003, the building became (aptly named)
Carnegie’s restaurant and banquet hall.
Click
here for a 1911 shot of the library. Let’s devour the present day shots, shall we
? Click on the thumbnail for more resolution.
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Establishing shot of the Carnegie Free Public Library on Market Street in Ballard. The site is now home to Carnegie’s restaurant and banquet hall.
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Shot of the facade and west face of the building. This Classical Revival structure has obviously been well kept over the years.
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The facade and east face of the building. As with most Beaux-Arts style buildings, the windows are very large.
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East face close up. The brick remains in fairly good condition despite being 100+ years old. The repetition of the modillion course is striking.
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Concentrating on the front entryway of the building. Of note is the projecting pedimented central pavilion.
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Alternate view of the entryway. The oval windows break up the many straight lines very nicely.
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This still looks like an amazingly well kept building!
It really is. A true treasure.
Cliffe
I remember, back in the 80′s, there was a used book/music store on the first floor -I sold a few old cassettes for soda money that summer. I don’t remember anything else that was there, but the Carnegie Library sign stood out, since I learned about Carnegie and his philanthropy earlier in the year at school.
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