Temporary quarters and the Spiro building

1958–1960

The move: While the Castle came down and its successor rose on the same downtown block, the library worked from temporary quarters nearby. The library's demolition photographs place it in the Standard Oil building at 221 West Wayne Street — the building now known as the Paragon Building — with staff packing books into Drewrys boxes for the move; one caption in the same collection gives the temporary location as 201 West Wayne. The new building, addressed in the library's photographs at 122 West Wayne Street, took a memorial name: the Betty Ruth Spiro Memorial Library. The library's history explains the name as honoring Betty Spiro and her daughter Ruth — Betty being the one who "had donated funds for the construction of a library." A dedication program of 1960 survives in the Notre Dame archives' printed-material files. The library's photograph of the ribbon cutting shows the second iteration of the city's main library opening under Mayor Edward F. Voorde, who cut the ribbon alongside Richard S. Zeisler; a postcard history of the building notes its mid-century face and its bas-reliefs of books, a lamp of wisdom, and a printing press. The postcard history carries the name in a single-name form — "benefactor Mrs. Betty Ruth Spiro" — where the library's own history carries mother and daughter; both forms stand in the record.

Sources:

1. Indiana Memory, Library History collection — the demolition and construction photographs and captions: the temporary quarters at 221 W. Wayne (Standard Oil building), one caption giving 201 W. Wayne; the Spiro building at 122 W. Wayne; the ribbon cutting with Mayor Voorde and Richard S. Zeisler; librarians Helen Murray and John Allshouse packing for the move into "the Spiro."
2. St. Joseph County Public Library, "History of the St. Joseph County Public Library" — the 1960 naming and the Spiro donation.
3. University of Notre Dame Archives, Francis P. Clark Collection — "Betty Ruth Spiro Memorial Library, Dedication, 1960."
4. Annette Aulik, "Public Libraries of Indiana" — the 1960 opening, the bas-reliefs, and the single-name form of the memorial.