Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 1854. The lyceum was preceded by a debating society, a special-interest mechanics' lyceum, and a circulating library. The lyceum's library eventually split into a separate institution at the end of the 19th century. In 1892, William Marsh Rice, a Houston businessman and philanthropist who later chartered Rice University, donated $200,000 for the construction of a free public library. The facility opened in 1895 and obtained its own building in 1904 with financial assistance from Andrew Carnegie. Betty Trapp Chapman wrote in The Houston Review that the city's women "were instrumental" in the library's establishment and that the educated women "had long recognized the need for a library to serve the community." Julia Ideson was named its first librarian and she hired one employee. Located at the corner of Travis and McKinney in what is now known as Downtown Houston, it originally housed 10,000 volumes. By 1907, 10,000 Houstonians held accounts at the library. By 1913, the library counted seven persons on its payroll. The city changed the name from Carnegie Library to Houston Public Library in 1921. By this time, they had outgrown their space and relocated several staff members to the Harris County Courthouse. A few years later, the library sold its property to raise money for a larger facility. Julia Ideson Library The library board selected a lot once occupied by Thomas M. Bagby, a co-founder of the 1848 Houston Lyceum. They commissioned Cram and Ferguson as design architects, in consultation with William Ward Watkin and Louis A. Glover. The building was completed in two years and at a cost of $500,000. The Spanish Renaissance design draws from regional history, and includes carvings of explorers and missionaries of Texas. The second floor hall lay under a rotunda, fronted by an interior oaken gate with carved columns and entablatures. The new building opened with a collection of more than thirty thousand volumes. The building constructed as Houston's Central Library in 1926 was later named the Julia Ideson Building in her honor. Carnegie Colored Library The board for the Houston Carnegie Library had planned for universal access to the facilities. However, those working at the library turned away African-Americans educators who visited in