City Directories and History: This handsome building was constructed in 1914 at a cost of $7,500. Architects Arthur Wm. Hamby and Edwyn Grant Rorke were in charge of the building.
The Carnegie Free Library is a one-story-over-raised-basement red brick Classical Revival building constructed in 1913-14, according to the designs of Arthur W. Hamby, of the well-known Columbia, South Carolina, architectural firm of Hamby & Rorke. Facing north, it is located at 210 Limestone Street, the main street in downtown Gaffney. It is situated across the street from the Gaffney municipal buildings and between the First Baptist Church and a Main Street parking lot. The gentlypitched standing seam metal roof is hidden from view by a brick parapet which wraps around all four sides of the rectangularly-shaped building. Set upon a brick basement, the two levels are delineated by a heavy limestone watertable. Granite steps flanked by stepped cast stone-capped pedestals lead to the centrally-located double-leaf wood and glass paneled doors at the entry to the main (second) floor of the building. CARNEGIE FREE LIBRARY is inscribed in limestone immediately above the entrance, however, is presently obscured by a wooden sign which reads CHEROKEE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING. The building’s slightly projecting central pavilion or frontispiece is limestone and features six horizontal brick inset panels on either side of the entrance, as well as two decorative metal and milk glass globe light fixtures. The composition is completed with a box bracketed, projecting cornice. Flanking the main entrance are tripartite decoratively-traceried Neoclassical style windows [now painted white] with wooden slat awnings placed high along the front wall of the building. Beneath each set of windows is a large underpanel framed in brick with limestone corner blocks and featuring a field of brick laid in a basketweave pattern. A bronze memorial plaque to Cherokee County’s World War I dead is centrally placed upon the underpanel at the left of the building’s entrance. The building’s two front corners are quirked, and a projecting classical cornice completely encircles the building. The first floor is partially below grade and two triple, six-light panels of windows, corresponding to those on the upper level, flank a lower double-leaf wooden door entry reached by cast stone steps from either side. This lower entry is hidden from view by the main entrance steps.
In 1937, the original structure, as designed by architect Arthur W. Hamby, was doubled in size by a rear addition. In the western and eastern sides of the building, a subtle distinction can be detected among the red bricks separating the original building from the 1937 addition. A matching standing seam metal pitched roof was added to the addition with the original rear wall being left to act in part as a firewall between the sections. S.A. Miller, a Gaffney contractor/builder, closely followed Hamby’s original design for this addition. The exterior of the building retains its architectural and historical integrity. The interior original pressed-metal ceiling, plaster walls and decorative crown molding are intact, but obscured by a dropped acoustical ceiling. In 1972, when a modern Cherokee County Library was built at another site, the county modified the Carnegie Free Library interior to serve as the Cherokee County Administration Building. The ceiling was lowered and modern composition wood paneled upper or main level. The lower level, used for offices and storage, retains more of its historic finishes. A granite monument marking the grave of Colonel James Williams, erected by the Daniel Morgan Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1917, is located on the western side of the front lawn; it includes two reproduction American Revolutionary War-era cannon and cannonballs. A granite war memorial obelisk in memory of Cherokee County soldiers killed in World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, erected by the Cherokee County Veterans’ Council in 1982, is located on the eastern side of the front lawn. (Courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives and History)
Images courtesy of Bill Segars
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