The Carnegie Foundation Library in Greenville... that wasn't meant to be
Judy Bainbridge
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When Furman's new president, Edwin Poteat, arrived in Greenville from Philadelphia in the fall of 1903, the university was on an upswing.
It was enrolling nearly 200 students, the most since the 1850s. John D. Rockefeller had just donated $100,000 to its endowment.
But the university needed a library. Just weeks after he arrived, Poteat wrote to Pennsylvania philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The immensely wealthy Scots steel tycoon had begun supporting town libraries in Scotland and the United States in 1898. By the turn of the century, dozens — hundreds — of towns and cities were asking for his help.