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DORSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
100 NW 17TH STREET
Designation Report
City of Miami
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CONTENTS
I. General Information
II. Significance
III. Description
IV. Planning Context
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V. Bibliography 14
DORSEY MEMORIAL LIBRARY
100 NW 17THSTREET
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location
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site plan
unincorporated Metropolitan Dade County, and to other municipalities that did
not offer library services. The current Miami -Dade County Public Library System
was created in 1971 when the City of Miami transferred its library system to the
County. The future of the new county library system was ensured by the passage
of a $34.7 million bond issue in 1972 to construct additional libraries.
Gradually, the remaining independently operated libraries elected to join the
County. By 1985, a new main library designed by the internationally renowned
architect Phillip Johnson opened in Downtown Miami and the system grew to
include 31 libraries.
As segregation was practiced in Miami into the 1950s, the government's provision
of facilities for African-Americans was minimal. It was left to the African-American
community to see to its educational, recreational and spiritual needs. The building
of the Dorsey Memorial Library is testament to the energetic and determined
leadership of the Black community.
The contributions of the African-American community to the City of Miami actually
predate the City's incorporation in 1896. As early as 1880, Black Bahamians arrived
in Coconut Grove and began a community that still thrives today.
In 1896, the vote to incorporate the City of Miami passed with 368 men voting. Of
that number, 162 of the voters were Black, for the most part comprised of laborers
working on Henry Morrison Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway, which made its
appearance in Miami that same year.
Miami's original Charter called for a separate area to be set aside for African-
Americans, first known as "Colored Town." The commercial spine of NW 2nd
Avenue defined that area, which eventually became known as "Overtown." The
population of Overtown soon expanded almost exponentially as migrants from
northern Florida and other southern states arrived. Emigr6s from the Bahamas,
Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago expanded the growing settlement
even further. Conditions deteriorated when the boundaries of the area did not
increase in size to correspond to the expanding need.
Between 1910 and 1920, such disreputable businesses as juke joints, taverns, and
houses of prostitution appeared along the northeastern edges of "Colored Town."
By their very nature, these establishments had more than enough criminal
incidents to keep the police occupied with a steady stream of transgressors. The
Miami Police Department and the Dade County Sheriff's Office were responsible
for keeping the peace. Stories of routine beatings and the torture of African-
Americans, coupled with the openly espoused racist views of both then -Sheriff
Dan Hardie and Police Chief Leslie Quigg, combined to create incendiary
conditions.
African-American leadership fought back through the formation of the Colored
Board of Trade and the Greater Miami Negro Civic League, which provided a
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benefit, education and enlightenment of the members of the Negro
races...
Mrs. Coleman and the ladies of the Washington Heights Neighborhood Association
and the Friendship Garden Club began to spearhead a request for donations to
enable a new library to be constructed. Their fundraising campaign garnered
$2,000 for the building, and the City of Miami donated $7,000 in order to pay for
the building and meet the deadline imposed by Mr. Dorsey.
The library, suitably named after its benefactor Dana Dorsey, opened on August
13, 1941. The building was used for 20 years, well past the time of great social
reforms that sought to integrate the races and prohibit discrimination.
The building is designed as a simple rectangular one-story block that contained
two wings, each coming off the central main entrance. One of the wings was
designated for adults, and the other for children. The library began its initial
inventory with some 2,000 volumes that had been housed in the Dunbar Branch.
In 1961, the Dorsey Library was abandoned for the new Dixie Park Branch Library.
In keeping with the policy of naming branch libraries after their geographic
location, in 1983 the County Commission changed the name at that time to the
Culmer/Overtown Branch Library.
Relationship to Criteria for Designation:
The Dorsey Memorial Library has significance in the historical heritage of the City of
Miami; possesses integrity of design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and
association; and is eligible for designation under the following criteria:
3. Exemplifies the historical, cultural, political, economical, or social trends of the
community.
The Dorsey Memorial Library reflects the historical, cultural, political and social
trends of the City of Miami as the first city -owned building constructed as a
library and only the second library in the City to serve the African-American
public.
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Dorsey Memorial Library
100 NW 1711, Street
North (front) and east facades
2002
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IV. PLANNING CONTEXT
Present Trends and Conditions:
The Dorsey Memorial Library is abandoned and neglected. Previously, the City of
Miami had declared the building unsafe. While the City has taken steps to secure
the building by blocking the windows, without sufficient maintenance, it will
continue to deteriorate. The community of Overtown has suffered major
destruction of its historic resources in the past. The preservation of the Dorsey
Memorial Library would be a particularly appropriate monument to the lives of its
pioneering citizens.
Preservation Incentives:
The preservation of the library is integral to the interpretation of the African-
American experience in South Florida. The preservation of the Dorsey Memorial
Library is especially appropriate as it represents the enlightenment that education
brings to ignorance.
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