The Castle

1895–1958

The building: In 1895, the 1920 account records, ground was purchased at the corner of Main and Wayne streets, "and the present library was built." The library's own history dates the building to 1896 and preserves what the city called it: a beautiful new building, referred to as "South Bend's Pride," built on 304 South Main Street, on land the Board of Education purchased in downtown South Bend. A postcard history of Indiana libraries dates the construction 1895–96. The building's turrets earned it the name it kept for sixty years: the Castle. Inside, by 1920, the main floor held the circulating library and a reading room "where all the best magazines and current newspapers are placed for the use of the public," and the second floor held a children's library and reading room. The city's figures, corrected to 15 November 1920, give the Castle near the height of its life: nearly 52,000 accessioned volumes, with a circulation of 232,689 during the last year. The Castle served until 1958, when it was demolished — the library's history says plainly, "to allow for the construction of a new building" — and the library's own photograph collection holds a series of images of its demolition. The name of its architect does not appear in the sources reached for this history; the building's designer waits in the library's own centennial history, Mary Waterson's The Library at the Bend in the River (1994), which stands behind the library's published timeline.

Sources:

1. Brown, The Story of South Bend (1920), ch. XIV and "Accurate Figures About South Bend" — the 1895 ground purchase at Main and Wayne; the 1920 interior; the 52,000 volumes and 232,689 circulation.
2. St. Joseph County Public Library, "History of the St. Joseph County Public Library" — the 1896 date, "South Bend's Pride," 304 S. Main Street, and the 1958 demolition.
3. Indiana Memory, Library History collection (St. Joseph County Public Library) — the demolition photograph series, ca. 1958.
4. Annette Aulik, "Public Libraries of Indiana" (library postcard histories) — the Castle built 1895–6, demolished 1958.