Oral History: Michael York Talks about State Library Tower
Dublin Core
Title
Oral History: Michael York Talks about State Library Tower
Creator
New Hampshire State Library
Date
2019
Description
An oral history with New Hampshire State Librarian Michael York, discussing the removal of the tower from the State Library.
Format
MP3 audio file
Language
eng
Subject
Identifier
OralHistory001
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Interviewer
Bobbi Slossar
Interviewee
State Librarian Michael York
Location
New Hampshire State Library
Transcription
This is an interview with New Hampshire State Librarian Michael York on March 26th 2019.
Interviewer: Michael, hello.
Michael York: Good Afternoon.
Interviewer: Mike, can you describe the scene depicted in the framed political cartoon that hangs above your desk?
Michael: Yes, this was a cartoon that appeared in the Manchester Union Leader on June of 1966. The only character in the cartoon is Governor John King. John King was a Democrat. He was elected in 1962 and he served three terms. He was the first Democrat in a very long time In New Hampshire. During most of the beginning of the 20th century it was a very solid Republican state and most of the governors were Republicans. Governor King went on to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. But during his three terms as governorIn the 60s, he was responsible, for example, for the first in the nation Lottery. New Hampshire instituted... There had been state lotteries, a lot of state lotteries, in fact, in the 19th century, but New Hampshire was the first to have a modern lottery, starting in 1964. A lot of people saw him as a progressive politician but there is one thing that most librarians, at least if they know the story, that they will never forgive him for: And that as what is depicted in the cartoon that appeared in the Union Leader, was that he had almost an obsession, some people would say, with the tower that appeared on the New Hampshire State Library. If you see old postcards of the State Library or photographs and sketches of the library, which was built in 1896, you'll see that there was a very prominent tower off the southwest corner of the building. Now, if you stand in the front of the building it's clear that the building is asymmetrical; it’s much larger on the east side than it is on the west side. When the building was built in 1896 and when it was occupied it served two purposes: It was the State Library -- and it clearly says so over the door and large block granite letters -- but it also served as the home for the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Supreme Court used the west side of the building and the larger portion of the building, the east side, was devoted to the State Library. It was where the large reading room was for the library and where the materials were stored. The west side had a very large, still does, rotunda room, which had the dais for the Supreme Court Justices to sit. It's a beautiful room, stately, really, in its appearance. It's been said that the governor really didn't like the asymmetrical nature of the building. That is, that the tower accentuated that Asymmetrical nature of the building. And folklore has it that he literally called up the Public Works department that do all of the work, lots of the work, that is done on state buildings -- and I think they did much more in that time period, probably contracted less and did more of the work themselves -- and he said that he wanted the tower removed. And it was removed. And the Union Leader took umbrage thinking this was overstepping his bounds. The cartoon shows the governor reading a book and the book title is Be an Architect in Three Easy Lessons. Spread on his desk are other books one is called Down with History and the other is The King’s Men, obviously a play on his last name, and Think Modern. And then there are some papers. One is: Estimate On Tower, Approved, signed John King $7000. And the next one is School Needs, Rejected. At the time they used to do what we would call an audit. And this paper on his desk says Condensed statement of condition. Basically that is an audit to show where the state is in terms of its finances. So, it’s an interesting view of a governor that had a tremendous amount of power in the state of New Hampshire. I cannot imagine, for example, that today in the 21st century, that any elected official would be able to take this unilateral action and just remove a very important part of a very beautiful and important public building in the state of New Hampshire. Now there have been problems since the tower was removed in 1966 with the now the ability of water to seep in around where we had a roof sized to a small room that was about twenty feet by twenty feet. But most importantly, it was a wonderful architectural feature. It is just gone. And it’s just, I think, a real tragedy, that, one, that one person was able to affect such a change on a beautiful building and change the character of the building forever. And, two, that he would want to do that. Now I have heard some cynical explanations for this, one is that the governor in this cartoon is clearly in his office -- I have actually been in that office, many people have been in that office -- and there is a very large window that looks right onto the State Library. That is the proverbial corner office; it is the one that is sought after every two years by many people seeking to be governor. And there are those who have said to me that they think that it was removed because it was taller than the governor’s office and he didn’t like that. Others have said that it blocked his view. There is no view from his office past the State Library. There is nothing of significance to view and you also can’t see it. The only thing you can really see from that office is the second floor and you would be looking straight at the administrative suite of the library. I am glad we have this cartoon in our collection. I haven’t seen it anywhere else. It is framed and we keep it as part of our special collections. And I very often show this. I take the opportunity to show it to guests when I am explaining what happened. We have a large sketch of the building that was done, known as an as-built sketch, it’s what an architectural firm has done after it has completed the work on a building of this scale, for example, and I usually point out in this beautiful sketch that we have in the lobby of the State Library, it shows the prominence of the tower, and they I usually show this cartoon. I was a student at UNH in the late 60’s and I don’t remember -- I wasn’t politically active -- I remember much more about Governor Peterson at that time than I do of Governor King. I think he was getting ready to retire and not seek another term as governor -- and that was unusual at that time. Most governors served two terms, some served three terms, but I believe that Governor [King] was the first of our governors to actually serve four terms. So, he was getting ready to retire as governor. And as I mentioned earlier, became chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. His next action, which I think was significant, was when he was Supreme Court Justice, he pushed very hard for the Supreme Court campus to be built on the Heights, where the current Supreme Court is. The library at the Supreme Court building is called the John King Library. I find that more than ironic since he, in my opinion, ruined our library, and then built another library.
Interviewer: Well, thanks, Mike. Are there any rumors about what happened to those granite blocks?
Michael York: Well, for years I’ve heard -- we had a wonderful reference librarian here at the State Library for a very long time -- her name was Stella S. She is still alive; we still see her. She comes in occasionally to the library to say hello and Stella told me that the story is that lots of those large granite blocks -- and they were quite large -- ended up near the Supreme Court building behind what’s now the Fish & Game building up on Hazen Drive where many of the state offices are: The Department of Motor Vehicle, the Department of Safety, there are a lot of state offices up in that complex on Hazen Drive. I also heard that some of the tiles -- they were terracotta tiles -- you can see it in the photographs we have of the building -- there were terracotta tiles on the roof and they say some of those ended up on somebody’s roof. I don’t know whose roof, but that they were salvaged and used on somebody’s home roof, but I don’t know that to be a fact. All of these stories lend themselves to... the fact remains that he removed a very important architectural detail on the State Library and there are those of us who will never forgive him for that.
Interviewer: Well, thank you so much for this story, Mike.
Michael York: My pleasure. Thank you.
Interviewer: Michael, hello.
Michael York: Good Afternoon.
Interviewer: Mike, can you describe the scene depicted in the framed political cartoon that hangs above your desk?
Michael: Yes, this was a cartoon that appeared in the Manchester Union Leader on June of 1966. The only character in the cartoon is Governor John King. John King was a Democrat. He was elected in 1962 and he served three terms. He was the first Democrat in a very long time In New Hampshire. During most of the beginning of the 20th century it was a very solid Republican state and most of the governors were Republicans. Governor King went on to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. But during his three terms as governorIn the 60s, he was responsible, for example, for the first in the nation Lottery. New Hampshire instituted... There had been state lotteries, a lot of state lotteries, in fact, in the 19th century, but New Hampshire was the first to have a modern lottery, starting in 1964. A lot of people saw him as a progressive politician but there is one thing that most librarians, at least if they know the story, that they will never forgive him for: And that as what is depicted in the cartoon that appeared in the Union Leader, was that he had almost an obsession, some people would say, with the tower that appeared on the New Hampshire State Library. If you see old postcards of the State Library or photographs and sketches of the library, which was built in 1896, you'll see that there was a very prominent tower off the southwest corner of the building. Now, if you stand in the front of the building it's clear that the building is asymmetrical; it’s much larger on the east side than it is on the west side. When the building was built in 1896 and when it was occupied it served two purposes: It was the State Library -- and it clearly says so over the door and large block granite letters -- but it also served as the home for the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Supreme Court used the west side of the building and the larger portion of the building, the east side, was devoted to the State Library. It was where the large reading room was for the library and where the materials were stored. The west side had a very large, still does, rotunda room, which had the dais for the Supreme Court Justices to sit. It's a beautiful room, stately, really, in its appearance. It's been said that the governor really didn't like the asymmetrical nature of the building. That is, that the tower accentuated that Asymmetrical nature of the building. And folklore has it that he literally called up the Public Works department that do all of the work, lots of the work, that is done on state buildings -- and I think they did much more in that time period, probably contracted less and did more of the work themselves -- and he said that he wanted the tower removed. And it was removed. And the Union Leader took umbrage thinking this was overstepping his bounds. The cartoon shows the governor reading a book and the book title is Be an Architect in Three Easy Lessons. Spread on his desk are other books one is called Down with History and the other is The King’s Men, obviously a play on his last name, and Think Modern. And then there are some papers. One is: Estimate On Tower, Approved, signed John King $7000. And the next one is School Needs, Rejected. At the time they used to do what we would call an audit. And this paper on his desk says Condensed statement of condition. Basically that is an audit to show where the state is in terms of its finances. So, it’s an interesting view of a governor that had a tremendous amount of power in the state of New Hampshire. I cannot imagine, for example, that today in the 21st century, that any elected official would be able to take this unilateral action and just remove a very important part of a very beautiful and important public building in the state of New Hampshire. Now there have been problems since the tower was removed in 1966 with the now the ability of water to seep in around where we had a roof sized to a small room that was about twenty feet by twenty feet. But most importantly, it was a wonderful architectural feature. It is just gone. And it’s just, I think, a real tragedy, that, one, that one person was able to affect such a change on a beautiful building and change the character of the building forever. And, two, that he would want to do that. Now I have heard some cynical explanations for this, one is that the governor in this cartoon is clearly in his office -- I have actually been in that office, many people have been in that office -- and there is a very large window that looks right onto the State Library. That is the proverbial corner office; it is the one that is sought after every two years by many people seeking to be governor. And there are those who have said to me that they think that it was removed because it was taller than the governor’s office and he didn’t like that. Others have said that it blocked his view. There is no view from his office past the State Library. There is nothing of significance to view and you also can’t see it. The only thing you can really see from that office is the second floor and you would be looking straight at the administrative suite of the library. I am glad we have this cartoon in our collection. I haven’t seen it anywhere else. It is framed and we keep it as part of our special collections. And I very often show this. I take the opportunity to show it to guests when I am explaining what happened. We have a large sketch of the building that was done, known as an as-built sketch, it’s what an architectural firm has done after it has completed the work on a building of this scale, for example, and I usually point out in this beautiful sketch that we have in the lobby of the State Library, it shows the prominence of the tower, and they I usually show this cartoon. I was a student at UNH in the late 60’s and I don’t remember -- I wasn’t politically active -- I remember much more about Governor Peterson at that time than I do of Governor King. I think he was getting ready to retire and not seek another term as governor -- and that was unusual at that time. Most governors served two terms, some served three terms, but I believe that Governor [King] was the first of our governors to actually serve four terms. So, he was getting ready to retire as governor. And as I mentioned earlier, became chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. His next action, which I think was significant, was when he was Supreme Court Justice, he pushed very hard for the Supreme Court campus to be built on the Heights, where the current Supreme Court is. The library at the Supreme Court building is called the John King Library. I find that more than ironic since he, in my opinion, ruined our library, and then built another library.
Interviewer: Well, thanks, Mike. Are there any rumors about what happened to those granite blocks?
Michael York: Well, for years I’ve heard -- we had a wonderful reference librarian here at the State Library for a very long time -- her name was Stella S. She is still alive; we still see her. She comes in occasionally to the library to say hello and Stella told me that the story is that lots of those large granite blocks -- and they were quite large -- ended up near the Supreme Court building behind what’s now the Fish & Game building up on Hazen Drive where many of the state offices are: The Department of Motor Vehicle, the Department of Safety, there are a lot of state offices up in that complex on Hazen Drive. I also heard that some of the tiles -- they were terracotta tiles -- you can see it in the photographs we have of the building -- there were terracotta tiles on the roof and they say some of those ended up on somebody’s roof. I don’t know whose roof, but that they were salvaged and used on somebody’s home roof, but I don’t know that to be a fact. All of these stories lend themselves to... the fact remains that he removed a very important architectural detail on the State Library and there are those of us who will never forgive him for that.
Interviewer: Well, thank you so much for this story, Mike.
Michael York: My pleasure. Thank you.
Original Format
Oral History
Duration
12:56
Subject Line
New Hampshire State Library
Files
Citation
New Hampshire State Library, “Oral History: Michael York Talks about State Library Tower,” New Hampshire State Library, accessed April 25, 2024, https://omekaclassic1.nhlibraries.org/items/show/87.