| |
The
Tyrrell Historical Library
Beaumont, Texas 695
Pearl Street
A. N. Dawson, Architect
Built in 1903 as the First Baptist
Church |
| | The
Tyrrell Historical Library
TE photo, 9-04 |
The most
eye-catching building in downtown Beaumont is
the Tyrrell Library. Constructed in 1903 as the First Baptist Church of Beaumont,
it replaced a red brick church that had previously occupied the site.
The rough-quarried limestone exterior instantly reminds the first-time viewer
of a medieval castle (with stained-glass windows). The building is an example
of Richardsonian design. Professor Jay C. Henry in his book Texas Architecure
1895 - 1945 states that it might pass for Richardsonian Romanesque "were two great
Gothic windows not used to light the sanctuary." We were about to say the same
thing. |
| | Postcard
of the building when it was still the First Baptist Church
Courtesy
THC |
| | The
building today
TE Photo, 5-03 |
| | The
Tyrrell Historical Library tower
TE photo, 5-03 |
Twenty
years after it was built, the Baptist congregation had outgrown the church and
so it was put on the market. Captain William C. Tyrrell purchased the building,
stained-glass windows and all, and donated it to the city for use as a public
library - an act that almost certainly saved it from eventual destruction. It
has retained the name Tyrrell but has since become a historical and genealogical
research library.
© John Troesser
Book
Hotel Here > Beaumont
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| | A
view of the library, theater and the railroad bridge over the Neches River
TE photo, 5-03 |
Tyrrell
Public Library My
Brief Stroll Down the Tobacco Road
by Frances Giles
The Tyrrell Public Library in Beaumont, Texas during the
years of my childhood was the site of many happy hours spent browsing for books
to read...more
Subject:
My First Visit
I
must have been about ten, and a student at St Anthony's Grammar School. We had
been studing about Libraries and how they worked, and that must have peaked my
interest in books something that had not been apparent before. It must have been
1938 and a saturday so I highed myself by foot the twelve or fifteen block downtown
to the Tyrell Library.
It is an expoerience that is seared into my memory
even today. I entered the massive doors in front and I distintly remember that
when I stepped inside the floor squeeked, and there was a smell that I can still
smell today, but for the live of me cannot describe. Dust particles hung in the
diffused light clear up to the vaulted ceiling like a gentle London fog.
As
I hestantly walked furthur in to the huge open room out of the fog emirged a large
figure dressed in black and scramed at me "What do you want young man?". It later
turned out that she was not large, only about 5 feet tall, not dressed in black,
it was grey and didn't scream. But my heart was pounding and I was speachless,
something my parents would find hard to believe.
I finally sputtered out
the name of the book I wanted and she took me in tow and found it for me and then
asked me for a library card. It was at that point that I knew the dream was about
to shatter. What Library card, I didn't know anything about cards. That was the
catch, they said it was a free library but you to have a card and you had to buy
it and it probably cost a dollar or more. I guped real hard and confessed that
I didn't have one. At that point she won my heart forever by saying "That's alright
Hugh come with me to the checkout desk fill out this little form and I will type
one up for you." She must have really like me because she spent the next
fifteen minutes explaining how books are our friends and we never turn down their
ears or write on their pages and we always return them a day early so that others
can also enjoy them.
She lauched me on a wonderious journey of the printed
page that has lasted til today. I am now 82 and as long as my eyes hold out I
will continue my treak into the unkown. - Hugh Nini, Sr., February 06, 2011
Subject:
Library comment
In your introductory photo of Beaumont,
I see the tower of the old Tyrrell Public Library in the foreground. When we moved
to Beaumont in June of 1968, I was nine. Our house was only the second one to
be built on our block so there weren't any other kids to play with. My mother
would take us to the library every week.
The library was in an old church
downtown next to the city auditorium. The children's collection was in the turret
room at the top of winding stairs. On one of the landings was a glass display
case with a vintage doll collection. I always had to stop and admire all of the
dolls. They were historical figures in elaborate costumes and I loved the detail
and colors of the fabric.
I got my first library card, a pale blue one
with a metal ID number. Children were limited to eight books. A feminist at an
early age, I loved the biography series for children which included famous women.
I read about Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Babe
Didrickson Zaharias - who was actually from Beaumont and grew up on streets we
drove by on our way to the library. - Anne L. Cook. Austin, October 04, 2004
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