The history behind this year’s library and bookstore winners

More than 150 years ago, a circulating or subscription library opened in Lansing’s Old Town at what is now 200-202 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.

The only known remnant or ephemera from that bookstore, which was housed in a drugstore, is in the collection of Capital Area District Libraries’ Local History Room, which is part of CADL’s downtown branch.

An ad from that period states that patrons could rent books for 10 cents a week — about $3.80 today.

Following that humble beginning, the Ladies Library and Literary Association was founded in the early 1860s but lacked funding. The original library’s location bounced around for several decades, including using three rooms in the original city hall.

Later, State of Michigan Librarian Mary Spencer worked feverishly with the community to establish a Carnegie library, which opened in 1905 after a city referendum in 1902 agreed to raise $3,500 annually tied to a $35,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie, a philanthropist and steel magnate, was responsible for building 1,700 libraries nationwide, including over than 60 in Michigan. Lansing’s still stands today on Shiawassee Street, though repurposed by Lansing Community College.

Hendrix (left) and Morrison, a Siamese, shared first place for Best Shop Pets. They reside at Deadtime Stories: True Crime and Other Books in Reo …

The Carnegie Library met the community’s needs until 1964, when the Lansing Board of Education opened a new main library in downtown Lansing, which is still in use today. However, CADL, a countywide system that came into existence in 1998, is looking at moving the library and its executive offices, which share the building at 401 S. Capitol Ave., for financial reasons.

In what might be an ironic choice in the annual Lansing Top of the Town contest, voters selected the downtown CADL main branch as the area’s best library. The East Lansing and Delta Township libraries came in second and third.

Libraries were one of the first free public spaces, now called “third spaces,” built as community gathering places in the United States, and that proud tradition continues to this day. Third spaces include not only libraries but also bookstores, gyms, churches and parks and theaters where people can connect with each other.

At the downtown library you can not only check out books and videos and use computers to research job openings openings, you can also run a check in the Local History Room on the history of the home you lived in.

Lansing’s bookstores have a similar history. William Carr opened Lansing’s first bookstore in 1857. It lasted for 12 years near the corner of Washington and Michigan avenues in the center of downtown’s emerging mercantile marketplace.

It appears a nearby location was later occupied by City Bookstore, operated by A.G. Viel and H.M. Hitchcock. An 1863 postcard is its only known photograph. The building burned in 1871.The location was later the site of American State Savings Bank Building.

Greater Lansing boasts nine bookstores today, including this year’s first-place selection for Best Bookstore (locally owned): REO Town’s Deadtime Stories: True Crime and Other Books — which moved up a notch from No. 2 last year. It also won first in the Most Trustworthy Business and Best Shop Pet category for its two house cats, Morrison and Hendrix. It finished second for best “eye candy” for its unique art deco concrete architecture, which bumps up against brutalist architecture.

The second- and third-place Best Bookstore winners launched five decades apart. Lansing’s granddaddy used bookstore, the venerable Curious Books in East Lansing, opened in 1969. It came in third. Finishing second was Hooked, which opened two years ago in the Red Cedar District. Hooked also snared a first place as Best Solo Hangout.