The Original Building
On February 21, 1922, the City held a bond election, and the vote was 446 for and 155 against a bond issue for certain municipal improvements, including a public library building. Mr. Murray S. King was instructed to prepare plans for the building, which were approved by the Commission on May 12, 1922. The contract was let to Mr. C. C. Hanner, August 30, 1922, for the sum of $73,983 and the building was erected under Mr. King’s supervision. The total cost of the building, grounds and equipment was $110,000. On November, 8, 1923, the doors of the Library were opened to the public.
The Albertson Public Library was a fine, limestone building with four tall Greek Doric columns topped with a carving of draped Grecian figures. Eleven broad white steps led up to the entrance, and a long low wall along Central Avenue was covered with trailing lantana. Just inside the tall doors, a large skylight in the rotunda added to the natural light admitted through large windows reaching almost to the ceiling. If you stood directly under the dome, you could see the head librarian–first Miss Brumbaugh, then Miss Wendel–in her little office on the balcony over the first floor.
Glass floors in the stacks were designed to let the light penetrate from one floor to another, but they also created “shocking” situations when static electricity sparked the woolen-clothed patrons in cool winters. The heating plan was not installed until 1938, and in later years the building leaked terribly in heavy rains.
There was a separate Children’s Room in the Albertson from the very beginning, and story hours and vacation reading clubs were held regularly. A garden and entrance to the Children’s Department on the Rosalind Avenue side were added in 1935 as a result of a gift from Miss Annetta O’B. Walker of Portland, Maine.
Sorosis donated all suitable books from their library to swell the original collection of 12,000 to more than 15,000 and then the City purchased books so that the Library began with a collection of 21,000 volumes.
In November 1943, the community celebrated the Silver Anniversary of the Public Library in Orlando and a booklet was created to commemorate the event. It outlines the history of how the library came to be, the library board through the years and facts and figures on the library’s holdings, circulation and borrowers in 1943. Peruse the 1943 booklet.
By 1959 the library was deemed totally inadequate to meet the needs of staff and residents. Read the Jaycee report.
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Albertson Library
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Silver Anniversary Cover
Albertson Public Library - Orlando Public Library
Clara Wendel Plaque
Reading Area - Albertson Public Library
Albertson Public Library - Customers At Card Catalog
Lobby - Albertson Public Library
Card Catalog - Albertson Public Library
Captain Charles L. Albertson Dies
Telephone Reference Service - Albertson Public Library - 1949
Albertson Public Library Bookmobile in action
Clara Wendel - Albertson Public Library
Clara E. Wendel - Librarian
50th Anniversary - Orlando Public Library - Clara Elizabeth Wendel
Technical Services Department
Captain Charles L. Albertson circa 1905
Albertson Public Library - Front exterior circa 1960
Portrait of Charles L. Albertson Page 20 of the Orlando Brief includes photos of the Albertson Public Library and the Orlando Municipal Auditorium (Bob Carr Auditorium). The auditorium is hardly recognizable if you see it today as a facade was added to the front of the building that altered the entrance area many years ago.
Booklet of the Albertson Public Library Silver Anniversary
Staff Play about the move of the Albertson Public Library (1963) to the New Orlando Public Library (1966)
Albertson Public Library - Letter from Children's Author Lois Lenski - 1944
Rules of the newly opened Albertson Public Library
Letter from City of Orlando thanking Albertson Public Library for helping with Haloween festivities.
Albertson Public Library letter from FLA
Albertson Public Library - letter from Hamilton Holt of Rollins College
Albertson Public Library - Invitation to Melvil Dewey's 80th Birthday Celebration
Albertson Public Library - Letter from Melvil Dewey - March 29, 1928
Albertson Public Library - Rollins College Letter
Albertson Public Library - Rollins College Letter - Novemer 30, 1931
Albertson Public Library - Orlando Evening Star Article - March 11, 1953:
Clara Wendel, Wintson Henderson, Walter Reed
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, February 10, 1953, Wintson Henderson, Mrs. Kenneth Rogers, Donald Walker, Rev. Louie Blackwell
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, February 8, 1953
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, January 16, 1953
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, April 25, 1953, Dr. George Crisler, T. A. Corbett, Winston Henderson
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, April 25, 1953, Dr. George Crisler, T. A. Corbett, Winston Henderson
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, October 19, 1953, Intellectual Freedom, Censorship
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, October 20, 1953, Intellectual Freedom, Censorship
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, April 1, 1954, Manly Duckworth, Pianist
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, January 1954, Eddie Yost, L . A. "Jimmy" Bryant, Edward Kirkland, Lydia Parent
Albertson Public Library - Orlando Evening Star Article, David Flick, Mrs. Floyd H. Bruton, Clara Wendel
Albertson Public Library - Orlando Evening Star Article, Clara Wendel
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, May 19, 1954, Mrs. Leter Harris, Mrs. Thompson Stevens, Mrs. Leland Giddens, Miss Clara Wendel, Mrs. Morton Bertin
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, December 1953, Clara Wendel, Dorothy Glenn Lane, Dr. Norman Miller
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Sentinel, November 30, 1954, Library Held "Inadequate", Clara Wendel
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, March 13, 1953
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, January 17, 1953
Albertson Public Library, Orlando Evening Star Article, January 11, 1954, Florence Bethea, Jewel Garvin, Paul A.T. Noon, Dr. Louis Shores, William S. Frieze, Dr. Rembert W. Patrick
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The Albertson Library (Waverly, NY) is featured on the entire front page of the Waverly Free Press. The Press takes the reader room by room listing most of the titles on the shelves in the Library located in one of Captain Albertson's homes. This is historical for our own Orlando Public Library as these are most likely some of the works that were part of the collection donated by Captain Albertson to create the Albertson Public Library in Orlando.
This commemorative booklet was created in celebration of the Silver Anniversary of the opening of the establishment of the Albertson Public Library in Orlando. The booklet lists the Board of Directors, Librarian and staff and presents the history of the library from its beginnings with the Sorosis Club of Orlando.
To peruse the booklet, click the link above.
Have you ever wondered why we tore down the beautiful traditional Albertson Public Library and built the current structure? Many folks have and many folks ask. Read this report completed by the Jaycees in January 1959 and you'll understand why it was a necessity!
The committee that studied the library was composed of John Barber, John Peake and S. Victor Tipton, and they enumerated 13 issues that made the library unfit for staff and residents. Number 10 caught my attention:
"There is grossly inadequate space for the some 40 clerical and staff workers to carry on their work. For example, four attempt to work at desks in a room 8 by 12 feet which includes also book shelves and filing cabinets. Desks have to be placed in almost every corner of the building. Some are protruding into aisles necessarily used by patrons. There are only eight small lockers for the 40 odd workers."
Peruse the entire report.