LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville is spending millions of dollars to fix up four libraries.
Three of those buildings are Carnegie libraries, which were built in the early 1900s from donations by Andrew Carnegie, a steel tycoon-turned-philanthropist.
Carnegie helped build nine libraries in Louisville. All of those are still standing, but some are no longer used as libraries.
One of the Carnegie buildings is in the Shelby Park neighborhood. Library services ended there in the 1990s, giving way to youth programs and eventually nonprofit space.
But the only current use of Shelby Park's old library is a meeting space for the neighborhood association.
The president of the Shelby Park Neighborhood Association, Maria Gurren, said this opening is creating a chance to push for a restoration of library services.
"We're really excited that it's vacant again," Gurren said. "And we have the opportunity to advocate as a neighborhood for it to become a library again."
Gurren said a petition for that cause has received nearly 1,500 signatures so far.
Right now, the neighborhood's library is based at Mid-City Mall. Their former branch is combined with another former Carnegie library, the old Highlands branch on Cherokee Road.
The Highlands building is now privately-owned.
According to officials at Louisville Free Public Library, two other Carnegie branches, Jefferson and Eastern, were discontinued as city libraries in 1975.
The old Jefferson library is located at 18th and Jefferson, and is about to reopen as a community space after an extensive renovation. Investors and neighbors in west Louisville helped fund the project, and the building will have co-op space, a lending library, and meeting rooms.
Private investors have helped to renovate the former Jefferson branch, and plan to open as a community resource for neighbors in the west end
The old Eastern Branch in Smoketown is now a Head Start.
There are five Carnegie libraries that are still city branches, including Crescent Hill and the Western branch at 10th and Chestnut.
The main branch on York Street is about to undergo a massive renovation, and millions more dollars are helping to renovate the Portland branch and to reopen the Parkland location.
Seeing the news about Parkland is what inspired Gurren and neighbors to start the petition.
"Just all of the investment in this administration into libraries, it really got us motivated that we could be next in line," Gurren said.
The city owns the building, and any funding decisions would come from a city budget.
Phillip Baker, who represents Shelby Park on Metro Council, said there are no plans for the building right now. But, he said, he knows about the petition and said all stakeholders and the community will have a voice in what happens next.
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