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Carnegie Library
Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal
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Click to view map Coordinates: | Money donated by the Carnegie Library Foundation $7,300 Now Information Centre - 2014. In 1906, Vryheid became the first South African town to receive a financial grant from Andrew Carnegie for the establishment of a public library. By 1917, when the last endowment was made for a similar library in Krugersdorp, twelve South African towns had received financial assistance, totaling the not insignificant amount of $123 855, to establish free library services to their local communities. In a letter both flattering and imploring dated 15 December 1905, Andrew Millar the librarian of the small Vryheid library, wrote to Andrew Carnegie at his magnificent Scottish estate, Skibo Castle, stating as a Dunfermline man himself, he too had enjoyed the free public library so generously endowed by Carnegie. Saying the Vryheid White population totaled about 1300 he explained with the Local Board in the throes of street making and other improvements, there were no funds available for a library. Adding that the local library and all the books were destroyed during the late war [Anglo-Boer War], he said they were starting afresh. He then stressed the adverse effects of the great local depression and concluded with: ‘There are (sic) a large number of young men in our midst, many of which are Scotch and, in the wintertime, especially after business hours there is no place of amusement for the young man to go, around us an ocean of veldt, the only place of attraction the canteen’. This heart-rending appeal, plus the Vryheid Local Board’s guarantee to the library of a sum of £100 per annum and the granting of a site on the Market Square to the value of £500, prompted James Bertram on behalf of Carnegie to confirm by letter, dated 6 October 1906, the endowment of £1 500 to erect a free public library. Designed by architect Oscar Rau who skillfully exploited the corner site to arrange access from the street corner to the charming little cupola behind which the reading rooms were placed. Another unusual addition, as far as the South African Carnegie libraries were concerned, were the verandas, which Rau considered essential due to the sub-tropical climate. Constructed by Johannes Lourentz Mouritzen, the building was officially opened on 30 September 1909 by the Chairman of the Town Council J. O. Player. The library proved so popular that in March 1918, a further application for funding was submitted to Carnegie to enlarge the building with additional lecture rooms because the Vryheid population had increased substantially due to the coal mining in the district. It must have been disappointing to have the application declined by the Carnegie Foundation due to its post war focus on librarian education and training rather than the building of libraries. Serving as the town’s library until 1976, it was declared a National Monument in 1981. It was fully restored in 1984. At present it houses the Vryheid Information Bureau. (SJ de Klerk for The Heritage Portal, Friday, September 24, 2021) Books that reference Carnegie Library
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