Carnegie Carnegie celebrates grand opening of Library Park
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On an almost daily basis in the 1980s, Karen Watkins and her children would walk up the hill leading to the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall.
“Now, my daughter brings her children here, and they enjoy the library,” she said. “It’s great to know that our library is still going and thriving,
Watkins was among the residents of Carnegie and beyond attending the grand opening of Library Park, the newly developed green space featuring a walkway to the venerable Beechwood Avenue building that makes pedestrian access more expedient.
“It really connects the library to Main Street. It’s so exciting, and it’s beautiful,” Carnegie Mayor Stacie Riley said. “It’s been in the works for so long, and when you start to see it come to fruition, it’s really tremendous.”
She credited Maggie Forbes, the library and music hall’s executive director, with taking a major role in the park’s development as part of continuing efforts to improve and restore the 121-year-old institution that’s known affectionately as the Carnegie Carnegie.
Library Park also includes a decorative mosaic wall with depictions representing the borough’s history, including its status as the birthplace of baseball immortal Honus Wagner.
“The community helped do that, so you feel like you put your little touch on it, too,” Riley said.
Four hours of festivities marked the park’s April opening, featuring music, food, crafts, games and the opportunity to have portraits drawn by artist Jeff Keenan, a member of the Historical Society of Carnegie.
“I’ve been doing caricatures with the library since 2015, when they had the grand reopening,” he said. “We’ve done it at Christmastime and other special events, and it’s just a wonderful, wonderful community activity. I’m so proud to be part of it.”
Keenan also acknowledged the efforts of Forbes, who spent much of opening day showing those in attendance around the library and especially the music hall, on behalf of the park project.
“Twenty-five years from now, these trees will have grown in size, and this will be such a dynamic drawing point for Carnegie,” he said.
For Walker Evans, library director since early 2020, working in a building that dates back to the dawn of the 20th century is a humbling experience.
“I’m constantly meeting people who say, ‘Oh, I remember I had Girl Scout meetings here 40 years ago,’ that sort of thing,” he said. “To have so much of the original building so intact, you can really feel the presence of all that history in there and all the generations of people.”
Of course, the role of the institution has changed over the decades.
“Today’s library certainly is about information sharing in many different ways. Traditionally, that’s been books, and books are still a very important part of what we do. But we have many, many online resources that you can access for free with your library card,” Evans said. “We’re also really interested in playing a role of community connection.”
An example is the library’s partnership with Attawheed Islamic Center, located on Washington Avenue in Carnegie since 1995.
“We’ve been doing, for more than a year now, a bilingual storytime,” Rema Abdin, a board member of Attawheed’s weekend school. “Once a month, we do a story or two in Arabic and in English, connecting both cultures. And it’s just amazing.”
She also serves on the Carnegie Carnegie’s board of trustees.
“We’re doing what we should do, building bridges and helping the community grow,” she said. “We’re so excited to be here.”
For more information about the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall, visit carnegiecarnegie.org.