The building: Wickes's Jacobethan library, opened 5 May 1916

1915–1916 · 122 North Hill Street

The design: "By May of 1915 architect A. F. Wickes of Gary was chosen to design the library. The history on the architect and previous commissions is unknown as is the reason for choosing an out-of-town architect from Gary." What Wickes drew was the deliberate exception among Indiana's Carnegies. The nomination's significance statement is plain: "Unlike many other Carnegie libraries in Indiana, Mishawaka's library does not feature the traditional 'Carnegie Classical' architecture style or the typical raised basement feature. Its architectural design is unique, incorporating elements most characteristic of the Jacobethan Revival style. The Flemish gable end walls and entrance are particularly noteworthy." One story, at-grade entrance, oriental brick with ivory terra cotta trimmings and a slate roof — the press of the opening week called it "of old English type of architecture, built of oriental brick with terra cotta trimmings and Queen Anne windows." The contract "was awarded to the lowest bidder of $19,900," a Gary contractor; "construction of the new library reportedly began in mid-September and was guaranteed to be completed within the next 110 to 125 days."

The opening: "In March, The Mishawaka Enterprise reported that the new library was nearly ready. Officially, Mishawaka's Carnegie Library opened on May 5, 1916 with an invitation for a public reception stating that everyone should '...show their appreciation of the royal gift by attending in masse'" (Mishawaka Enterprise, May 5, 1916). The paper's account of the evening a week later gave the building to the town in its own words: "the library is something long desired and needed by Mishawaka, and our citizens should be profoundly grateful to the great philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, for the generosity which has made its acquirement possible" (Enterprise, May 12, 1916). Mishawaka's was the 147th of Indiana's 164 Carnegie libraries — the state held nearly a tenth of all the Carnegie grants in the country — and in the city's 1995 Historic Sites and Structures Inventory the building was rated Outstanding.

The rooms in use: The main floor was divided by a great central desk into an adult reading room at the north end — glass-partitioned, with space for six reading tables — and a children's room at the south, built around a massive fireplace; of the children's room the Enterprise promised, in the opening week, that "in this room the little people will have every convenience and will enjoy a story hour every Saturday morning at 10 o'clock" (May 12, 1916). Book stacks lined the other walls. Nearly half the basement followed the Carnegie Corporation's own published plan — a lecture and social room at the north end that "initially served as a meeting place for the Women's Club and other civic and social groups," the rest given to storage, overflow, and mechanicals, with separate restrooms near the front stairs. Above the main entrance a terra cotta plaque carried the building's motto: "An Idle Book Never Loses in Power. An Idle Man Does." The plaque's fate belongs to the move of 1969, and is printed there.

Sources:

1. Fine, Carnegie Library nomination (1997), sections 7 and 8 — Wickes of Gary; the Jacobethan design and its exception to Carnegie Classical; the $19,900 contract; construction from mid-September 1915; the opening of May 5, 1916 and the Enterprise invitations and account, quoted from the nomination's citations; Indiana Carnegie number 147 of 164; the 1995 inventory's Outstanding rating; the interior and basement arrangements; the story-hour promise; the entrance plaque's text.
2. Evans, "Pages in Transit," South Bend News-Times (2025) — the opening-week description of the English-type building in brick and terra cotta.