ABC Wednesday: Maring Library of Muncie

Maring, 

another well-known name

in Muncie.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Keiser_Maring_Library

Grace Maring was the wife of Joel Maring, founder of glass factories throughout Muncie, Indiana. A philanthropist and advocate for education, Grace Maring gave the city of Muncie $25,000 upon her death to develop a public library system. In 1930, the Grace Keiser Maring Library was dedicated, and began serving the south side of Muncie. The library was posted to the National Register of Historic Places on September 15, 2005.^[2]

Architecture[

The library was designed by architects Herbert Smenner and Charles Houck. The architectural style is a variation of colonial revival, a popular style in the early 20th century. Built from brick and trimmed with limestone, it is the only remaining civic building of this style in Muncie. ^[3]

This beautiful building is no longer being used as 

the Maring Library.  It was closed some time ago,

as was the Hunt Library.

When our former middle school was closed,

a part of it was dedicated to apartments

and the rest of it became

Maring-Hunt Library, as seen below.

The library in which I spent many an hour 

when I was writing my high school term paper

no longer functions as a lending library.  It is now

a source for local history and genealogy.

Andrew Carnegie donated $55,000 to the city of Muncie

to build this library.  It was dedicated January 1, 1904.

This library and the original Maring Library are on

the National Register of Historical Places.

linking to 

ABC Wednesday

created by Mrs. Nesbitt

and hosted this week 

by the faithful Reader Wil.