Syracuse's classic downtown Carnegie Library, not to be confused with the Carnegie Library up on the SU hill, opened in 1905 as the first Syracuse City Library.
It stopped being a library in 1987 and became a school for a decade. It is now empty. It could easily become a library again. The interior is intact.
Onondaga County owns it and is looking for a purchaser.
Let it become a library again!
It is not difficult to imagine an arts and architecture library there. At street level it would be far more accessible and inviting than the Central Library in the Galleries.
Give part of it over for a children's library. Many young people already live within 10 minutes of the library. As more housing returns to downtown a small local library, the Downtown Branch, would be ever more practical.
Consider giving space for a technical library, to expand the resources and study space of the revitalized Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central.
Let us not let this significant piece of our past pass out of our hands.
