A St. Helena classicSt. Helena’s former library sits at the corner of Oak Avenue and Adams Street, surrounded by a chain-link fence and stripped of its Spanish-style roof. The outer walls are blotched with plaster and windows blocked by plywood.

But not for long.

The building will reopen in a matter of months,  architect of record Tom Faherty anticipates, although probably not in time for October’s Hometown Harvest Festival as originally planned.

When it does reopen, its walls will be braced with brackets and steel beams to make it earthquake-resistant, the electrical wiring updated and new air and heating systems tucked behind Sheetrock walls. The completed structure will sport a new paint job inside and out and, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, a broad cement ramp will lead to the basement area.

Although the 100 year-old building is not the grand dame of St. Helena’s historic structures — the majestic International Order of Oddfellows Hall and the stately Episcopal and Catholic churches are at least a quarter century older — it could be considered a plucky, if somewhat stocky, matron and one of 87 of her kind still existent in California.

Her lineage is impeccable. She is, after all, a Carnegie.

The Carnegie touch

In the late 1800s, United States Steel Company founder Andrew Carnegie was following his philanthropic dream of subsidizing construction of free public libraries throughout the country. Small towns were especially favored.

In St. Helena, the town’s subscription library founded in 1875 became a public library 15 years later, operating out of the I.O.O.F. building on Main Street. According to a St. Helena Historical Society article by former library director Larry Hlavsa, the daily circulation numbers at that time were in double digits, but patrons were intent on finding a permanent home for their library.

Carnegie had only two stipulations for those accepting his largesse: The community had to find an appropriate site and agree to continuously support the library through public funds.

Under Carnegie’s influence, the number of public libraries in the United States grew from 900 in 1896 to 4,000 by 1925. Of these, Carnegie grants helped build 2,509 libraries, 100 of them in California.

By 1903, town fathers had convinced St. Helena Star publisher and editor Frank B. MacKinder to write to Carnegie asking for a $7,500 grant — roughly the equivalent of $735,000 today. Three years of negotiations followed. The town earned the grant once it had a building site, and received an additional $862 in 1908 to complete the basement.

Although the use of local architects and builders was encouraged, all designs were scrutinized by Carnegie’s personal secretary to ensure an efficient design allowing librarians to have an unencumbered view of the stacks.

There were, however, no guidelines for exterior architectural style and the resulting structures varied. The main categories included Greek Temple, Classical Revival, Romanesque, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Italian Renaissance, Bungalow/Craftsman and, as in St. Helena’s choice, Mission/Spanish Revival.

The St. Helena Public Library opened Nov. 22, 1908, under the directorship of Sophie Zierngibl. A diligent observer, Zierngibl kept tabs of the number of first-day visitors (122), new members (13), cash received ($1.90), and average daily circulation that first month (39).

Restore and renew

When the Carnegie was decommissioned in 1979, it was not only the regular meeting place of the St. Helena City Council, but youngsters took tumbling and martial arts classes, teens gathered informally to play piano and talk, and Harvest Festival judges traditionally slipped away to a Carnegie meeting room to determine Pet Parade prize winners.

In 2009, the Carnegie has been getting a different kind of attention, mostly punctuated by buzzing table saws, pounding hammers and the whir of plaster mixers. Old walls and outdated electrical wiring have been removed. Room has been made for a three-story elevator but the original casement windows — wavy glass and all — will stay.

“Unfortunately, the building has very little historical fabric left,” said Faherty, a partner in Valley Architects, during a recent top-floor-to-basement tour. “The staircase is original, probably redwood, but it’s been painted over. We think the floors were originally linoleum on fir, except upstairs. We wanted to refinish the wood flooring, but because of cost concerns we are going to have to carpet the whole thing.”

Another unexpected discovery: Part of the Carnegie sits on a neighboring parcel, a property-line mix-up that has existed for nearly 101 years.

The new design manages to accommodate an elevator shaft (the operating mechanism sits to the side, rather than in a deep pit underneath), a large electric panel, two furnace systems and fire sprinklers where none existed before.

“All design ends up being somewhat of a compromise,” said Faherty, whose firm has worked on several historic restorations, among them Frank Family Vineyards, Seavey Vineyard, Venge Vineyards and, most recently, the St. Helena Catholic Church. “I’ve yet to see a perfectly pure design that didn’t have to be compromised for code reasons, or quite often, budgetary reasons.

“We just do our best to make it right.”