Mirror Lake Library, Public library in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Mirror Lake Library is a 1915 Beaux-Arts Carnegie library on the bank of Mirror Lake in St. Petersburg, Florida. Architect Henry D. Whitfield, who worked for the Carnegie Corporation, gave it slightly overscaled sculptural details, bold supporting consoles, deep cornices and swags. A 1951 wing was removed and replaced during the 1987–1994 restoration, which reopened the 1915 building.
Steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie funded the building with a grant in 1913, and it opened to the public in 1915 as a new institution for the young city. The library was one of ten Carnegie-funded buildings established in Florida during the early decades of the 20th century.
The library takes its name from the nearby lake and became a gathering place for the community to learn and connect. It served as a symbol of St. Petersburg's transition from a frontier settlement to an established city.
The library stands on the bank of Mirror Lake, the former city Reservoir, at 280 Fifth Street North; the site was chosen on July 17, 1914. The 1915 wing is entered from the main entrance, and the 1951 wing was replaced during the 1987-1994 restoration. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1986.
The Carnegie grant was intended for racially integrated libraries, yet when the building opened in 1915 St. Petersburg was segregated and refused black residents entry. Only in 1944 were black patrons allowed into the basement, and an interracial committee led by Mrs. S.M. Carter lobbied the city until the James W. Johnson Library branch opened as the city's first library for the African American community.
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