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First U.S. Carnegie Library Damaged by LightningThe Allegheny branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) has been closed indefinitely after lightning struck the building’s 115-year-old clock tower mid-evening on April 7. Miraculously, the building was empty at the time and no one was injured. There were no library materials damaged either. “I’d say we were pretty lucky,” CLP Executive Director Barbara Mistik said in the April 9 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.The lightning bolt loosened several tons of rock that tore two holes in the roof and ripped through the second-floor lecture hall and the children’s room directly beneath. A pyramid-shaped portion dropped from its position atop the tower into the spot where presenters usually stand in the second-floor lecture hall. Other pieces of granite flew out of the building and became embedded in the lawn on several sides of the facility. Damage on the first floor seemed to be limited to a 3-by-5-foot portion of the plaster ceiling coming loose in the children’s room, and a shattered glass skylight. Water damage was confined to the stairwell and hallway, according to library spokesperson Suzanne Thinnes. She added, “The clock [from the tower] is still working, amazingly enough.” Although debris removal began April 10, Thinnes emphasized that officials “really won’t know how long the library will be closed or how much repairs will cost until we determine the extent of the damage.” Dedicated in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison, the facility is the first free library that Andrew Carnegie built in the United States. It houses some 160,000 items. “Libraries are so dear to the neighborhood and they’re a community anchor, so the community does feel a loss if something happens to it.” Posted April 14, 2006. |
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