Story by Thomas Fuller – Manatee Mysteries
One of the many fantastic features of this wonderful area is the Palmetto Historical Park, located on the corner of Sixth and Tenth Avenue West. Included among the various buildings are an amazing agriculture museum, a military museum, the heritage chapel, the cottage museum, a post office and a school house. Additionally, the park boasts a fine staff of special people who create and conduct many programs and events for the enrichment and entertainment of the community.
The most prominent structure, facing Tenth Avenue West, is the old library, in use from 1914 until 1969 when the new library was constructed across the street. The building is now used as an archive library for the museum. I must say, the building is a bit odd. The main entrance, normally reserved for the first floor of most buildings, seems for some reason to be on the second floor, however, the nine steps from the sidewalk to the front door will take guests to what is officially the first floor. And what might be thought of as the first floor that evidently sank a few feet into the sand is not the first floor at all.
So, to discover the design behind this special and unique structure, we have to pay a visit to a man named Andrew Carnegie, a fellow born in Scotland way back in 1835. He immigrated to America and, after several business endeavors, built what would become United States Steel. With no formal education, this diminutive 5 foot 3 inch man became an industrial giant. In 1901, he sold his company to J.P. Morgan for $480 million dollars, a staggering amount of money back then.
Now, Carnegie was no typical wealthy man. He believed that the key to success involved a three part formula. One third of life should be dedicated to education, one third to making money and one third to giving it away. He once was quoted as saying, “A man who dies rich dies disgraced.” And, he meant what he said. Carnegie dedicated himself to giving all his money away, and he did it with gusto. He built hospitals, colleges and established non-profits. He supplied thousands of churches with organs. He built Carnegie Hall, and he built, you guessed it, public libraries. Not just a few. He built 2,509 of them. And one of them is in the Palmetto Historical Park.
The entire community participated in securing a Carnegie Library for the town. The city raised $1,000 and donated the land. The Ladies Library Association put on plays and raised funds for books and furnishings. Everything was moving forward and then, a snag. The Carnegie Foundation required that every library have a basement. That became problematic because, as we all know, basements do not work well here in our beautiful paradise. Somehow, and I am not sure how this was all worked out, we ended up with a second floor pretending to be a first floor, and an above ground basement. Carnegie went on striving to give away his fortune, but as successful as he was in making money, he failed to give it all away. At his death in 1919, in today’s value, it is said that his net worth was somewhere near $310 billion dollars. At least he tried, and we here in Manatee County are thankful for it.
