Sometime in the 1970's, an unknown donor gave the Baldpate Inn the key to the El Paso Library. It is framed and reads:
The El Paso Public Library is the oldest library in the state of Texas.It was founded by Mary Irene Stanton who donated her personal collection of 1,000 books to the Boy's Reading Club in 1894. The next year, women were granted access to the reading club, which was originally located at Sheldon Hotel. The library soon outgrew the hotel and moved to the El Paso City Hall building in 1899.
Citizens quickly called for the library to have a building of its own, and in 1902 Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist millionaire, donated $37,500 to build and stock the El Paso Library.
In order to qualify for Carnegie's grant, the city of El Paso had to abide certain rules called the "Carnegie Formula." One of these rules required the local government to pay the staff and maintain the library. So, the citizens of El Paso voted in a local tax to maintain the library.
The library system now has 13 branches and a BookMobile to provide the masses of El Paso with accessible information and additional classes and social groups to encourage the social and intellectual growth of it's population.
Libraries are a priceless resource, even as the world continues to transfer to online resources. Aside from books, libraries often provide services (such as tax-filing assistance, job searches, etc) and classes (knitting, English as a Second Language, computer literacy, etc). Having free access to limitless education is a sacred public work.
As this key implies so succinctly, a library holds access to all human knowledge.
Written by: Maddie Anderson
Key Room Curator (and library assistant)
