It might have taken more than 120 years and rummaging through some old papers, but an important piece of Lynn’s heritage has now been found.
Richard Waite was looking through his late father’s belongings when he came across two large-scale drawings of the Carnegie Library building.
In discussion with fellow committee members of the Old Lennensians’ Association, it was agreed to offer them to the Borough Archives, which is based in the Stories of Lynn building on the Saturday Market Place.
The Archives already hold details of the special lunch held in 1905 to mark the opening of the Carnegie Library.
Another architect, Ray Spaxman, who attended King Edward VII Grammar School in the 1940s, has fond memories of his visits as a boy to the Public Library.
He wrote: “The architecture is a beautiful reminder of how it celebrated its function as a special public building.
“Its contribution to the well-being of Kings Lynn is immense and easily forgotten, but should be celebrated.”
In 2024, Mr Spaxman gifted to the Borough his 1936 painting of the Custom House by Walter Dexter, which hangs in the Town Hall.
The datestone says that the Architect of the Library was Herbert Green, 1850-1915, and that the building contractor was W F Smith.
Reporting by Nash Cooper
