OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Building History

Architect Franklin Pierce Burnham (1853-1909), born in Rockford, IL, came to Southern California from Chicago, IL, during the economic slowdown of the mid-to-late 1890s. He reestablished himself in Los Angeles by 1898, with an already extensive reputation for the design of public buildings. Burnham had already designed several buildings on the Notre Dame University Campus in South Bend, as well as the Tabor Grand Opera House, Denver, CO, (1881, designed for H.A.W. Tabor), and, most notably, the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta (1884-1889).Burnham became successful in competing for the commissions of Carnegie Libraries in Southern California, having had a hand in the design of 12 in the region. Three of these were done during his partnership with William J. Bliesner, Jr., (1872-1945).

His design for the Colton building was set on tall foundations with a daylighted basement. It was bilaterally symmetrical, with two wings on either side of a central portico. This form reflected the general rules outlined by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which became more prescriptive after 1910. The Colton library had a slight difference from Burnham's other Neo-classical designs. Whereas most had projecting porticoes, this one had its columns in antis.

PCAD id: 23244