By Michael D. Wynne
A little building that sits quietly while busy people routinely speed by it holds the historical treasures of our community. Yet, these treasures are not locked away in a giant safe, but are available for all to study, learn from, and be inspired by. Our local heritage and history, and our family histories, sit on shelves and are displayed in glass cases at 503 Washington Street in Alexandria, the site of our Alexandria Historical and Genealogical Museum and Library.
Unlike many older historical buildings, we know a tremendous amount about of this building’s origins and history, courtesy of the one-time library’s board meeting minutes. This building was founded as the Alexandria City Library, almost four decades before the parish library system was created. Area businessman, Simpson S. Bryan (1849-1909), matched a $10,000 grant from Pittsburgh philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) in 1907. Carnegie, the "father" of many of the nation’s libraries by way of his generous grants, wanted every school student to have access to books, something nearly unheard of a century ago. This handsome building comes from a “cookie-cutter” architectural design template and was originally built as an elevated one story building with a basement that was surrounded by an earthen berm, the berm used to protect the building from Red River flood waters.
For almost sixty years, this building served as our chief library. In 1965, the Rapides Parish Library System, founded in 1942, built a much-needed larger main library building across the side street. Through the efforts of local citizens, the old building was re-designated to be used as a “historical library.”
The initial efforts were very humble and were without much direction, using only a small amount of space for a few books and several donated historical artifacts. Other city offices were also housed there. But during the grand American Bicentennial celebration in 1976, the Alexandria Historical and Genealogical Library and Museum became formally established. Even more importantly, a $50,000 grant was obtained and was used for much-needed renovations of the building.
The renovations included: converting the basement into a usable public area for the growing museum collection, adding three street level doors and removing the berm, installing central heat and air, and adding an elevator. The top floor was now going to be solely used as a genealogical and history library while the bottom floor was going to be used as a museum. Although the city of Alexandria owns and maintains the building, a separate board would be in charge of running and maintaining the library and museum.
The genealogical library and accompanying research equipment grew rapidly and the facility is now considered one of the top genealogy libraries in the state. It is fascinating not only to see visitors who come there from all around North America to research their family histories, but also to research central Louisiana’s illustrious history as well. The museum itself really got started by Angelique “Gic” Stafford Kraushaar (1921-2005). She was a unique character and was clearly the driving force of the museum later named “The Louisiana History Museum.” The museum is an odd combination of both authentic artifacts and reproductions with an impossible mission of trying to show not only our local history, but also our state’s and nation’s. The museum is very quaint and old-style, not aggressively educational as many modern museums strive to be these days. But there are quite a few treasures in the museum that make a tour of it well-worth the visit.
We have historical “treasure chests”in central Louisiana and this building and its contents are clearly one of the most important. Stop by Tuesday thru Saturday, 10-4, and see what I mean.
