File:The Bennett Square Building (which as of 2015 is called the Georgian Center) on Main Street in Wheeling, West Virginia LCCN2015632083.tif

English: Title: The Bennett Square Building (which as of 2015 is called the Georgian Center) on Main Street in Wheeling, West Virginia

Physical description: 1 photograph : digital, tiff file, color.

Notes: Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:055).; Credit line: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.; Forms part of: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.; Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.; Formerly the city's longtime public library (the Bennett Square sign above the entrance was applied over a "Public Library" inscription) but now an office building. In the early 1900s, the city had authorized a vote on a $50,000 library levy to purchase a site and for books and maintenance in order that there might be a Carnegie Free Library in Wheeling. The proposed library had strong supporters from business leaders and prominent citizens. However, the members of the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly union were firmly opposed to any sort of monument to Andrew Carnegie and worked vigorously for the defeat of the levy. On January 26, 1904, the levy was turned down by 201 votes. Wheeling became the first American city to reject a Carnegie grant. The Board of Education eventually voted to erect a library with its own resources, and this building opened in 1911.