Rebirth in Homestead: the Carnegie Library
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The library was Andrew Carnegie's gift to Homestead. -
Brian Drusky, left, and Dan Lloyd are the driving forces behind the revitalization of the Carnegie Library of Homestead, once an antiquated white elephant, now at the center of a newly reinvigorated community. -
The ceiling painting by Ian Green of the renovated teen room at the library. -
One of the stairwells in the building.
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Comedian Paula Poundstone will be there Friday. Patti Smith showed up in 2007 just after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. David Crosby and Graham Nash recently played to a sellout crowd, as did Nickelodeon's "iCarly" star Miranda Cosgrove.
Is there a glitzy new entertainment venue in town?
Not exactly, unless you consider the century-old music hall at the Carnegie Library of Homestead to be glitzy, with its terrific acoustics, a thousand seats of burnished wood, a coffee shop (whose grand opening is Friday during the Paula Poundstone performance) and a wine bar.
The recently renovated hall, along with a new fitness center, reading room and other amenities have transformed the Homestead library -- located in Munhall -- from an antiquated white elephant of a building in a faded neighborhood into a self-sustaining multipurpose facility for a newly reinvigorated community.
At a time when nonprofits and other "community benefit" organizations are reeling from cuts in public funding, the Homestead library is a textbook example of social enterprise and reinvention, experts say, using revenue from the music hall and its fitness club memberships to stay viable. The library's core mission has been preserved, and then some: you can check out a book or use a computer, take a Spinning class, have a cup of coffee or see a show.
There's more to come: a swimming pool in the basement -- the longest continually operating heated pool in Western Pennsylvania, complete with marble columns reminiscent of ancient Rome -- will be renovated, as will an old bowling alley, which may become an indoor baseball training facility.
"They've captured the spirit of the original Andrew Carnegie vision for libraries in building and renovating what he originally saw as a community center with multifunction outreach, updated for the 21st century," said Marilyn Jenkins, executive director for the Allegheny County Library Association, which comprises 45 libraries -- including the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which isn't affiliated with Homestead.
"If we had told people in Pittsburgh that we were going to take a 113-year-old library and turn it into an engine for economic development that would drive business to the Waterfront and surrounding communities, they would have said we were crazy -- but most people think I'm crazy anyway," said Dan Lloyd, a Munhall insurance agent who is widely regarded as the driving force behind the library's renovation.
First Published June 1, 2011 12:00 am
