{"nrhp_refnum":"03000606","name":"Bolivar Free Library","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"390 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bolivar","county":"Allegany County","state":"NY","lat":42.06526000000008,"lon":-78.16752999999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-07-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick Carnegie-funded library building at 390 Main Street in the village of Bolivar, Allegany County, New York, built in 1910 to designs by architect E. F. Prichell.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is significant for its link to Andrew Carnegie's library philanthropy and as a rare, largely intact example of Mission style architecture in the rural Southern Tier. It is also one of the civic improvements surviving from Bolivar's late nineteenth-century oil boom period, and it remains an active free library.","narrative":"Bolivar Free Library, at 390 Main Street in the village of Bolivar, New York, is a buff brick Carnegie library completed in 1910 and opened to the public in January 1911. Architect E. F. Prichell gave it Mission style features: a projecting entrance pavilion, wide overhanging eaves, open rafters, a bracketed entrance canopy and a hipped roof clad in Spanish tile. The original curved parapet over the entrance was later replaced with a plainer design. The library grew from a community effort begun in 1895 by the Bolivar Sorosis, a group of local citizens who wanted a free library. A $5,000 Carnegie grant paid for the building after the village bought the lot. Mission style buildings are uncommon in the Southern Tier, and the library even influenced a nearby day-care center to adopt Spanish details. It is one of fourteen Carnegie libraries in New York still in continuous operation and is overseen by a private, not-for-profit board of trustees.","period_of_significance":"1910","architect_builder":"E.F. Prichell (architect); Sherman Richardson (contractor)","architectural_style":"Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still functions as an active, free library; the front entrance parapet was later replaced and the basement interior refinished after flooding from Hurricane Agnes in 1972.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:54.057106-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/03000606.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316405","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivar_Free_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4939493"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/allegany-county/bolivar-free-library-03000606/"}