This building will be unlike anything on East Lancaster
The Reby Cary Youth Library planned for a vacant lot on East Lancaster will be a “beacon for the neighborhood” and a shining reminder of the building’s namesake, designers say.
Fort Worth is investing nearly $5.5 million in the 8,000-square foot family library at 3851 E. Lancaster Ave. That’s between Haynes and Mount View avenues in an area dominated by car lots and other businesses but well within walking distance of homes in Meadowbrook.
It’s the first Fort Worth Public Library designed specifically for children and their caregivers and is part of a broad plan to boost early childhood education. It should open by summer of 2020.
That makes it a perfect library to bear Reby Cary’s name. The late Fort Worth educator spent his life dedicated to learning, as well as breaking down racial divides. His daughter, Faith Ellis, told Fort Worth City Council members in June when the name was announced that her father had instilled a passion for learning in her at a young age.
“We always knew he had a very private legacy of education and giving back to this community,” she said. “This is an extraordinary public legacy.”
The building will be unlike anything on this stretch of East Lancaster, dotted with low-rise beige and brown buildings.
Renderings from architects at KAI Texas in Dallas show a sleek, modern building angled toward the sky with large windows and brightly painted lower level facades.
The design is meant to encourage those passing by to come into the library, said Darren James, president of KAI Enterprises.
“They’ll see a lot of activity and life in the building,” he said. “It really draws people in.”
Inside, those large windows cast abundant natural light throughout the building, which James said will encourage learning and energize library patrons.
Instead of tall stacked bookshelves and hardback chairs typical of a traditional library, the Reby Cary Youth Library will have lower shelving and seating designed to encourage families to read together.
“Kids can kind of lean back and kick their feet up,” James said. “This is a family library so the idea of having mom and dad read to their children is key.”
KAI has designed several public buildings including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation and Aquatic Center in Atlanta and the Billy Earl Dade Middle School and Highland Hills Library in Dallas.
The firm took significant public input, he said, in effort to blend the building with the historical elements of the surrounding neighborhood. The design includes a large open garden designed to encourage neighbors to gather at the library.
The building is meant to continue “great examples” of contemporary architecture found in downtown, the Cultural District and around TCU along the eastern coordinator.
“It acts as a beacon in the neighborhood,” James said. “I think it’s something we can point to as a sense of pride and ownership for the community.”
The West Meadowbrook neighborhood around the library is evolving, with an influx of young couples and families, said neighborhood president Tonya Ferguson. She said residents are excited to about the library and she hopes it encourages other investment along East Lancaster.
“We’re going to have a beautiful piece of architecture drawing in families,” she said. “Hopefully that brings new businesses to cater to them.”
The library put the branch’s name up for a vote online. More than 500 names were submitted, 123 of them unique. Kelly Allen Gray, councilwoman for the district, Tonya Ferguson, Meadowbrook Neighborhood Association president, and library staff whittled the list to five and Reby Cary garnered the most votes.
Cary’s name should have significant meaning to the city as a whole and particularly East Fort Worth.
He tore down racial barriers, being the first black man elected to the Fort Worth School Board in 1974 and later elected to the state House of Representatives in 1979. He was the first African-American professor hired at UT Arlington and helped establish the McDonald College of Industrial Arts for African Americans in the Riverside area.
He also held leadership positions in the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County and Texas Council of Black Republicans. He also founded the Frederick Douglass Republicans of Tarrant County group in 1985.
Cary’s father, Smith Cary, established Rising Star Baptist Church in Fort Worth, and Cary grew up in the church before attending Prairie View A&M University.
He died in December at 98.
Throughout his life he built a legacy of advocating for education and reading. He authored more than 20 books.
Mayor Betsy Price, at the June work session, said Cary taught a history class a UT Arlington during her junior year that she remembered fondly for Cary’s colorful stories that made history come alive.
“He was one of the toughest teachers that I had, but he was also one of the most entertaining and one of the fairest,” Price told Ellis during the work session.
This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This building will be unlike anything on East Lancaster."
