Albertson Public Library

On November 10, 1921, Captain Charles L. Albertson, a winter resident of Orlando and a retired Police Inspector from Waverly, New York, met with the Orlando City Commissioners and a committee from the Chamber of Commerce to offer his personal library of 12,000 books, valued at around $75,000, to the City of Orlando.

The announcement of Captain Albertson’s offer was published on the front page of  the Evening Reporter Star the following day. On November 12, 1921, the Orlando City Commissioners met and unanimously accepted Capt. Albertson’s offer to donate his library to the City of Orlando. The formal agreement was signed on November 26, 1921. It stipulated that the City of Orlando would “erect a fireproof library building of sufficient capacity to accommodate the said books, and that the same shall be known as The Albertson Library…”

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 on 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 with little fanfare. For photos, documents and more visit the Albertson Public Library – In the Beginning.

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.

The original accession books, listing every title added to the library and the donor or book seller from whom it was purchased, still exist.

The first accession book contains entries 1 – 10,000, and includes books gifted by Captain Charles L. Albertson, the Sorosis Club, and others in the community.

Accession book one

Front Matter

Entries 0001-1000

Entries 1001-2000

Entries 2001-3000

Entries 3001-4000

Entries 4001-5000

Entries 5001-6000

Entries 6001-7000

Entries 7001-8000

Entries 8001-9000

Entries 9001-10,000

In November 1948, 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 1948.

Peruse the 1948 booklet.

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.”

Explore the DOCUMENTS and IMAGES below under ATTACHMENTS. People of note mentioned in correspondence or newspaper articles include Clara Wendel, Wintson Henderson, Walter Reed, Wintson Henderson, Mrs. Kenneth Rogers, Donald Walker, Rev. Louie Blackwell, David Flick, Mrs. Floyd H. Bruton, Lois Lenski, Hamilton Holt of Rollins College, Melvil Dewey.