JOYCE BROADUS, the former Carnegie Library of Homewood branch manager from 1988 to 2004, likened the library on Hamilton and N. Lang avenues to the iconic Kaufmann’s Clock in Downtown Pittsburgh. “It’s just home,” she said. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
$12.5 million renovation plan announced; community can participate
The New Pittsburgh Courier is 116 years old.
Few things are that old that still serve a primarily African American audience in Pittsburgh.
But on Friday, May 1, hundreds of people turned out to celebrate another African American treasure that’s also 116 years old.
The Carnegie Library of Homewood held a party of its own. There was plenty of food and beverages, fellowship and live music from the Gordon Gary Quintet. The mostly-Black audience saluted the library that was called, “The cornerstone of our neighborhood,” by Alva Blair, president of the Friends of Homewood Library, the organization that hosted the event.
Joyce Broadus, a Black woman who served as branch manager of the Homewood Library from 1988 to 2004, called the library “the ‘Kaufmann’s Clock of Homewood,’ because they know where you are, at the corner of Hamilton and Lang.”
She added: “It’s just home. They got it right. Andrew Carnegie got it right.”
GORDON GARY
Among other notables who attended the two-hour celebration were former Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey and former Pittsburgh First Lady Michelle Gainey, current Pittsburgh City Councilman Khari Mosley, and current Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.
The Carnegie Library of Homewood opened on March 14, 1910, which, if you’re wondering, was two months after the Pittsburgh Courier began printing in January 1910.
Back in 1902, the Homewood Board of Trade formed a Library Committee, which met with and convinced Carnegie, the steel titan and philanthropist, to provide the funding for a library in Homewood. He initially gave $60,000 to the project, but the Homewood Board of Trade Library Committee said they wanted more. Carnegie ended up giving $150,000, which equals about $5.2 million in today’s money.
The Carnegie Library of Homewood was the last of the original Carnegie Library branches to be built in Pittsburgh. It was completed in 1910 to English Gothic designs by the architectural firm Alden & Harlow. It has undergone two renovations, in 1970 and 2003. It was designated as a historic Pittsburgh landmark in 2004.
“This is the heart of the community,” Broadus told the Courier at the May 1 celebration. “This library has always been on this corner. When everything else was changing, this library was still here.”
During the celebration, those who took to the microphone, like Mistress of Ceremony Tene Croom and the Carnegie Library’s President and Director, Andrew Medlar, announced the start of an ambitious fundraising campaign to renovate and upgrade the Homewood Library once again, ensuring it can be around for the next 116 years.
The price tag for the renovations, the Courier has learned exclusively, is at least $12.5 million. As for how much has been raised already, Anne Lee, the Carnegie Library’s Director of Development, told the Courier that “a tiny bit of it” has been raised.
“Bits and pieces,” she said.
The Carnegie Library hopes to raise at least 75 percent of the $12.5 million by sometime in 2027, so that work on the building could begin. Lee told the Courier that just to replace the HVAC system on the building will cost roughly $6 million, a figure confirmed by Medlar, who told the assembled crowd that the $5.2 million in today’s money that Carnegie invested to create the library… “(today) that wouldn’t even buy an HVAC system.”
Other planned renovations include a new roof for the building, new windows, new flooring, new lighting, a new elevator, and creating a teen space inside the library.
“We’ve never had a space just for teens here in this branch so that will be very exciting,” Lee told the Courier.
There’s plans for a new lobby/reception area next to the auditorium on the ground floor, along with some updates to the 300-seat auditorium itself. Lee did say that overall though, the auditorium is “in pretty good shape” already, with relatively new chairs and floors.
Whenever the library begins its renovations, the library is scheduled to close for about a year.
The fundraising for the vast majority of the $12.5 million needed to complete all renovations will come from foundations, state grants and funding, its own reserves and certain individuals.
But the Carnegie Library has implemented a way for community individuals to donate to the renovation project. Each of the auditorium seats are up for naming rights. For $300, a plaque with the name of your choice will be affixed to one of the seats in the Homewood Library auditorium. To have a name affixed to one of the 14 first row seats, the cost is $1,000 per seat. The name is guaranteed to be there for at least 20 years.
“In a neighborhood where the community has been such an essential part of the vitality of this (library), it felt very important to create an opportunity for people to be a part of preserving their public library, to be a part of its legacy and its future,” Lee told the audience.
Lee said a “Renovation Community Session” will take place on May 14, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Homewood Library (7101 Hamilton Avenue) to give people a chance to discuss the renovation plans with library leadership.
Over the years, in addition to the many plays put on by the Kuntu Repertory Theatre and New Horizon Theater in the auditorium, the late, iconic actor James Earl Jones has set foot inside the Homewood Library. So has the late Fred Rogers, a number of times. So has the former First Lady of the U.S., the late Barbara Bush, when she read to kids as part of the “Beginning with Books” early literacy program.
“That’s when I learned about Secret Service,” Broadus, the former Homewood Library branch manager, quipped.
Lois Toni McClendon, a member of the United Black Book Clubs of Pittsburgh, paraded through the Homewood Library during the library’s “birthday party” of sorts, seeing what her next book to check out would be.
“I wish that more community people participated in this library,” she told the Courier. “They’re missing out. There’s all kinds of events going on here…This is the place to be.”
PHYLLIS EDWARDS LISTENS TO MUSIC SELECTIONS FROM THE GORDON GARY QUINTET AT THE CELEBRATION FOR THE HOMEWOOD LIBRARY, MAY 1, 2026. (PHOTO BY ROB TAYLOR JR.)
Phyllis Edwards and Geneva Russell, who clapped loudly as the Gordon Gary Quintet played inside the library’s children’s section, enjoyed the celebration for the Homewood Library.
“I grew up in the library,” Edwards, of East Liberty, told the Courier. “They always had something going on. It was enjoyable for the kids, gave them something to do.”
Edwards called the Homewood Library “a central meeting place. It’s like a community. Someplace where you can come in, you don’t have to worry about anything else.”
