Mark Twain library next to come down?

[buildingsofdetroit]

The city has sent out an RFP to demolish the Mark Twain branch of the library at Burns and Gratiot.

RFP:
http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/About_DPL/Bids_RFP/rfp-mark%20twain%20demolition.pdf

Library:
http://tinyurl.com/yaj9rks

[Eastside]

That's too bad, one of my favorite library buildings.

[ordinary]

Wasn't there a whole lot of money sunk into that Library only about 5- years ago.

[stinkbug]

WHY?! I can't wait to see what exciting new development will go there.

After the high winds, the Tiger Stadium site is now full of garbage, and looks like any other vacant swath around the city, except it is fenced in.

Why are they tearing down a one-of-a-kind historic building on an arterial road? Gratiot is very blighted, but if it is used for mass transit, or if the airport is ever capitalized on, there is a lot of potential. What is the point of demolishing it anyway? There are enough dangerous burnt-out or crack houses throughout the city posing an immediate threat to people who live here.

Somebody needs to lock the doors of the City County building and light the place up so we can start over.

[EastsideAl]

Sad, sad, sad. This was my library when I was a kid. It is a beautiful building designed by Wirt Rowland [[who also designed a couple of other little buildings called Guardian and Penobscot).

This library was closed by the city back in the late '90s with the promise that it was going to be refurbished. Instead it sat and rotted and nothing happened. When people in the community complained, the city took some of the books and opened an "annex" library in a local church hall. That's what's now proposed as the full-time replacement for this beautiful structure that was just left to decay as yet another f--- you to the east side, until it "must" be torn down [[a nice little money-maker for downtown's favorite demolition contractors).

We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

[Bearinabox]

Well, I guess this explains why nobody in this town seems very interested in reading.

I grew up two blocks from a library, and got my first library card before I learned to write in lowercase. I knew all the librarians by sight, knew where to find the books I liked, knew how to get them stamped and take them home and bring them back by the due date and throw them in the slot. It was one of the first places I was allowed to walk by myself. Having a library right there in the neighborhood is a great thing for a kid. The more branch libraries we close and demolish, the fewer kids will have that experience growing up, and the less likely they are to end up literate and well-educated.

I honestly can't fathom what these people are thinking.

[13074Glenfield]

Very sad indeed. I spent many happy hours in this library as a kid.

[Retroit]

There are many other buildings in that area that are in much greater need of demolition. Makes me wonder if they just pick the first building that catches their eye???

I also wonder why this is being demolished by the Library Department. Seems to me that if the Library Department no longer has a need for this building, it should be handed over to the city and added to the "master list of buildings to be demolished" and ranked accordingly [[preferably near the bottom of the list). Why is the Library Department, an institution dedicated to the preservation of knowledge, engaged in the perpetuation of stupidity?

[Gsgeorge]

Holy cow, when will it end?!?!?!!? Why are we knocking down our treasures? This building is not even broken into or in bad shape... There is no reason for it to go. The DPS and Detroit Library system are spending money on demolition when it could go to securing buildings, buying more supplies & books, educating our citizens. They should all be locked up and throw away the key. A sin against this city.

[DetroitZack]

How ridiculous, they are so many other buildings more worthy of demolition then this one. I will head out there to take a few pictures sometime this week.

[buildingsofdetroit]

D'accord with you all. So let's do something about it. I know there are folks in Indian Village who'd fight on our side.

[Lorax]

Are there any attorneys on this forum who can file an injunction against the DPL?

That should keep them busy for some time. Also, why isn't this building given to someone who will at the least mothball it? Paying to demolish it, at this stage of the game, and with the economy and finances of the city in shambles smacks of corruption. More demolition derby money kicked back into the pockets of city hall.

Hell, put it up for sale first- cash only- 10 grand takes it away. This is what they need to be doing to get these buildings into private hands.

[GRALR]

WHAT TH F ....... sorry but my goodness they are intent on destroying the past, treasures, the city, peoples lives, and everything else. Someone needs to stop them enough is enough. I guess if you destroy the past no one in the future will have any idea what a well ordered society was like.

[Ms. G]

This was my library as a child. This building needs to be saved and re-opened as a library. There are so many children int this area that need a library. Is there anything that can be done. Can we get a legal opinion from a lawyer?

[renf]

In the summer of 1901, Andrew Carnegie gave the city of Detroit $750,000 to erect libraries.
Was the Mark Twain Branch one of the 8 or 9 libraries erected with his funds?

[EastsideAl]

No, this building was built in 1940.

[cub]

It would make a nice place for a second GSCC neighborhood.

[cman710]

If there was a legal hook for an injunction [[nothing comes to mind here off the top of my head), you would probably have a decent shot at winning a preliminary injunction, because there would be irreparable harm by the demolition of the building. The city owns the building, though, so I am not sure what can be done. The way the city's government acts is so frequently exasperating.

[Retroit]

I drove by tonight and the building looks fairly well secured [[although it was dark and raining and I didn't stop). But that building just to the south is absolutely horrendous. Couldn't they tear down that eyesore instead?

[MichMatters]

I get it. Of two similarly-sized buildings, the one the most intact, and with the most salvagable material is the more attractive of the two to the city and demolition firms, for different reasons, of course, right?

[Stosh]

I'd wonder if the DPL would be more amenable to turn over that building to a non-profit like the GSCC for rehabilitation as a community center of sorts. Costs may prohibit it, but it's better than the alternative. Maybe just a open ended lease arrangement? Something?

[tallboy66]

Instead of the Joe Louis fist @ Woodward and Jefferson they should put up a wrecking ball.

[Neilr]

I drove by tonight and the building looks fairly well secured [[although it was dark and raining and I didn't stop). But that building just to the south is absolutely horrendous. Couldn't they tear down that eyesore instead?

The building to the south of the Mark Twain is a interesting set of townhouses built around a narrow courtyard. The end unit has a turret and there were garages that opened off the Gratiot alley. They were nice places to live until sometime in the 1970's when they began to decay. I remember several attempts to remodel them; but they never came back. The surrounding streets to the south of the Mark Twain are not badly kept. There are many good families keeping up their homes on Seminole, Iroquois, Seneca, and Burns.

[eriedearie]

Now this really and truly saddens me. That was my favorite library. At least once a year when I attended A.L. Holmes Elementary School, one of our teachers would get us together for a field trip to the Mark Twain Library. We would all gather at the side door on Crane and walk to the library together.

I loved the big fireplace in there, and the way they had those big leather high backed wing chairs placed in the area. The daily newspapers from all the major cities were hanging on those wooden rod contraptions, and some of the retired folks from the neighborhood would be there reading the papers.

Sometimes on a Saturday me and my friends would go there to check out books. I would always get 2 or 3. I felt so important walking home carrying books about some adventure or other.

We just drove by there a couple months ago on our way to see Cub, and I pointed the library out to my husband like I always do, and told him again about how beautiful it was inside.

Sad stuff that it is being demolished

[sumas]

This sounds so Detroit. Isn't there a song called the "Wrecking Ball" ? That could become Detroit's Anthem. All the burnt out houses and Detroit wants to demolish beautiful historic buildings.

Back in the Coleman Era, several libraries were put on short openings. Our branch was Jefferson on Outer Drive. A study of usage was commissioned and Jefferson had the highest patronage for a branch library. Unfortunately, for patrons, since the neighborhood was still predomintly white, our branch was axed as a full service library. We went instead to Kennedy Library in Harper Woods which at the time was county owned and also took a subscription to the GP library.

My Mom attended East Commerce High School and Twain was her library. She is 90 now, I won't tell her about demolish plans cause she would cry.

I have been contemplating volunteering as a reader mentor for DPS but if area libraries keep closing whats the point?

Seems like Detroit wants to eliminate it past. Lets put up more sculptures like the amazing ugly Joe Louis fist. Poor man deserved better. Harmonie Park, a german enclave is now Paradise Valley? Maybe the philosophy is destroy history so it can be re written.