Located in Castries, St. Lucia, the Carnegie Free Library of St. Lucia was one of six libraries in the Caribbean built with Carnegie funds. Plans for a library in St. Lucia were discussed in 1909. Seven years later, in May 1916, philanthropist and businessman Andrew Carnegie donated £2,500 (equivalent to $12,500 in U.S. currency at that time) for the library's construction. Land on which to build the library was purchased for £500 (at that time was about $2,500 in U.S. currency).
Construction of the library didn't began until May 1923 . The delay was due to disagreement between town officials on the library's location and the library's design. The Carnegie Free Library of St. Lucia's construction was finished in June 1924. A grand opening ceremony for the library was held on December 1, 1924.
In 1948, a fire spread through Castries, and the library was one of several buildings in the town that were damaged. Approximately, 20,000 volumes in the library's collection were destroyed. Afterwards, the Carnegie Free Library of St. Lucia was rebuilt, and in 1958, its name was changed to the Central Library of St. Lucia.
On November 25, 2014, Larry T. Nix, blogger for the "Library History Buff Blog", did a post about the St. Lucia Library's appearance on a postcard and the library's history. You can view his post here:
"St. Lucia's Carnegie Library on Carnegie's Birthday" by Larry T. Nix
http://libraryhistorybuff.blogspot.com/2014/11/st-lucias-carnegie-library-on-carnegies.html
Update 8/05/2015:
Related posts: Carnegie Free Library of Barbados (Bridgetown, Barbados) and Carnegie Free Library of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
Also, the Central Library of St. Lucia (formerly the Carnegie Free Library of St. Lucia) has a Facebook page:
Central Library of St. Lucia
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Library-of-St-Lucia/131762740327635
Update 2/07/2016:
Related post: Carnegie Library Roseau (Roseau, Dominica)
Sources: Hinds, Beverly. Historical Overview of Public Library Development in the English-Speaking Caribbean. [San Juan, PR]: IFLA, 2011. 4. PDF File. ; Aimable, Anselma. "Did You Know: Controversy over Central Library." St. Lucia News Online, 28 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 July 2015. ; Nix, Larry T. "St. Lucia's Carnegie Library on Carnegie's Birthday." Library History Buff Blog, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 27 July 2015.
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