Barr Branch Library

Completed in 1906, the Barr Branch Library was the first of six public branch libraries in St. Louis funded by Andrew Carnegie. Constructed from red brick and trimmed with Bedford stone, the library was design was designed in the Classical Revival style by the architect Theodore C. Link. Known for his design of Union Station downtown, Link had also designed the Mount Calvary Episcopal Church that previously stood at the site of the Barr Branch Library before a tornado swept through the city in 1896. During its early years, this branch library was the meeting site for several different women's groups, including the Equal Suffrage League, the Barr Branch Mothers' Club, and the Women's Temperance Union. Renovated in 1995, the library received another major upgrade in 2020 with the establishment of a new Creative Experience 'makerspace,' which features 3D design and printing tools, audio and visual production equipment, graphic design and animation software, virtual reality headsets, and other high-tech tools, with the goal of providing equitable access to digital technologies. The Barr Branch Library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Barr Branch Library Historic District.

In 1901, the St. Louis Library Board received funds from Andrew Carnegie for the construction of a Central Library downtown, along with six branch libraries. The architect Theodore C. Link was hired to design one of the branch libraries near the Lafayette Square neighborhood. Link, who was best known for his earlier design of Union Station (1894), made sure that the library's Classical Revival design was relatively austere, in keeping with Carnegie's preference that any buildings he financed should be without the unnecessary expense of excessive ornamentation. The library was named for William Barr, a St. Louis merchant and philanthropist who donated the land for the library. Born in Scotland, Barr is described as having enjoyed a "Horatio Alger rise to success" after emigrating to the U.S. At age fourteen, he took a $2 per week job at a dry goods store owned by Ubsdell & Pierson, the third largest dry goods company in the country. By the time that Barr was twenty-seven, he was promoted to senior partner, following his years as a store clerk and manager of the company's four-story retail space downtown, which comprised a city block at Vine and Third Street.

Between 1906 and 1920, the Barr Branch Library served as a meeting place for several different women's groups in the city that were organized around political, social, or charitable causes. After 1911, a local chapter of the Equal Suffrage League formed and began to meet on site. This group chose to gather at places such as Barr Branch Library because of the proximity to working- and middle-class neighborhoods, which allowed the suffragists to carry their message to various parts of St. Louis, beyond the affluent Central West End. The Equal Suffrage League may have also been part of a larger organization known as the Women's Radical Political Education League, a group that was documented in the library's 1912-1913 Annual Report. In addition to these women's groups, the Barr Branch Mothers' Club and the Women's Temperance Union also gathered regularly at the library for meetings.

Today, Barr Branch Library serves as a place not only for books, learning, and community activities, but as a multi-functional space that provides access to digital technology. In 2020, the library launched a Creative Experience 'makerspace' that includes 3D print and modeling tools, animation software, audio production and recording rooms, graphic design and image editing software, a large-format printer, a laser cutter, video production equipment, virtual reality headsets, and other high-tech tools. Library cardholders can reserve blocks of time in specific areas within the Creative Experience space, where it is possible to engage in a range of activities, from designing your own website or animating a video to recording music or hosting a podcast.

In a 2020 interview for St. Louis on the Air, Justin Struttmann, Chief Operating Officer for the St. Louis Public Library system, and Mary Meyer, Manager of Digital Services at Barr Branch Library, stated that the goal for the new Creative Experience space is to provide equitable access to the next wave of advanced digital technologies. As the stakes continue to increase in this third decade of the twenty-first century, the St. Louis Public Library system is committed to bridging the gap of the 'digital divide.' As Struttmann explained, "We've been doing that really well, I think, with our high-speed internet that everyone has access to as soon as they walk in the doors. We have all the computers that people can reserve ... We even check out hotspots. So, that gets people to that base level. This [the Creative Experience] takes them to the next level. This puts high-tech equipment at their fingertips."

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"Creative Experience at Barr," St. Louis Public Library. Accessed March 4th, 2023. https://www.slpl.org/creative-experience/.

Hemphill, Evie. "St. Louis Public Library Puts Finishing Touches On Plans For New Makerspace At Barr", St. Louis Public Radio. January 22nd, 2020. Accessed March 4th, 2023. https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2020-01-22/st-louis-public-library-puts-finishing-touches-on-plans-for-new-makerspace-at-barr.

Saunders, John. "The Women of the Clubs: 1890 - 1920", MO Preservation Issues, MO Dept. of Natural Resources Office, Historic Preservation Issues. Accessed March 4th, 2023. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/PI6-2(3-4-96).pdf.