The Ridgway Branch Library, Philadelphia
The Ridgway (as you can see below) is quite a magnificent building. It's story is also far and away the most interesting one to tell. The Ridgway started life as a reluctant branch of the Library Company. The chief source for what follows is drawn from "At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin" A Brief History of the Library Company of Philadelphia," (The Company, 1995) kindly sent to me by John C. Van Horne, the present librarian. Parts of this story are also in the Report in an article on the Ridgway by Lloyd Smith, starting on page 953. The building was not yet completed as of the writing of the Report. The description, in a lengthy footnote on page 961, is largely architectural in nature, although it does mention that the planned capacity for books is 400,000 volumes.
The Story:
In 1869 Dr. James Rush left $1,000,000 of his estate to the Library Company. Rush was the son of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Declaration of Independence signer, and noted collector of medical books. More to the point Rush fils was married to, and heir of, Phoebe Ann Ridgway, who was in turn, heiress of her fathers "immense" fortune. James and Phoebe had no children, and James loved the Library Company. There were, however, complications via the conditions in Rush's will. To make a long story short negotiations between the Company and Rush's executor dragged out for years, there were several lawsuits involved. Eventually:
In 1878 the Library Company reluctantly accepted the impressive edifice, which was named the Ridgway Library in honor of the original source of the funds that made it possible.... The Directors decided to use the Ridgway Library as a kind of storage house, although they never phrased it so crudely. ("At the Instance... 56-59)
Among other things the Ridgway wound up holding the Loganian collection. One gets the impression that the Ridgway was regarded as something of a bastard stepchild by the Company. The library is located in South Philadelphia, and while it is never openly stated I suspect that the area was unacceptable to the dues paying members of the Company because of class, and perhaps racial, ahh... differences.
Here's the American Memory image which dates from around 1900.
In 1960 the Company sold the Ridgway to the city of Philadelphia, with part of the proceeds going towards construction of the present quarters.
One of the more unusual events of the process of relocation was the transfer of the remains of James and Phoebe Ann Rush from at crypt at the Ridgway Library to a crypt beneath (the current building)("At the Instance... page 89)
Talk about special collections!
After the sale the Ridgway operated as a branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia- an arrangement dating back to 1944. By the mid 1980s the building was apparently abandoned. This description comes from the page of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts page:
The School Board promised a new building for years. A "state of the art" building was flaunted in front of the students and faculty every once in awhile, and in 1993, a site was even named...the Ridgeway Library on Broad street. It was a giant abandoned library, made of stone and decorated in front by wonderful things that were covered by graffiti.
The story does have a happy ending, however, The High School for Creative and Performing Arts did move into the building in 1997 after a $30,000,000 rennovation and addition. There is even a grant that endows a fund to guarantee "whatever exterior work is needed to keep the exterior graffiti-free." (thanks to Elliot Shelkrot, Jean Drake, and Doreen Velnich of the Free Library of Philadelphia for the newspaper clippings.)
Ridgway surfaces again in a very strange context: the movie Twelve Monkeys, director Terry Gilliam's look at a grim and strange future. Well, what did I expect from Terry Gilliam? On the other hand the movie does have Madeline Stowe on board, so things can't be all bad. But I digress.
The Ridgway Branch of the Library Company, 1876-1960
