Explore the Cleveland Bradley County Public Library Facilities
The Cleveland Bradley County Public Library has one of the most unique library facilities in the country. Beyond the newer Library additions, there are 3 historic houses that make up the physical facilities.
The Main Library Branch
The Main Library Branch is made up of newer construction and 2 historic house portions (Hardwick-Jarnagin House and Carmichael Annex).
The first addition was built in 1987 (10,000 sf). The second addition (5,000 sf) was added in 2002 as a new Children’s Room and Computer Center.
The third addition was completed in 2009 (17,000 sf) and added new homes for the Reference Department, Children’s Department, Circulation Department, Teen Zone, Lobby, Periodical Reading Area, and Study Rooms.
The Hardwick-Jarnagin House
The Hardwick-Jarnigan House stands as the cornerstone of the Cleveland Bradley County Public Library’s main complex. Joseph H. Hardwick purchased the property in 1881, and the home was completed in 1883. The original home, furnished in the latest Victorian style, was much smaller than the one seen today. It has undergone three major renovations that expanded its footprint and added a large, curved porch and a brick façade.
Hardwick was a member of a family that helped Cleveland join what historians call the New South. The movement, in part, sought to modernize the southern economy by adopting new industrial methods. The Hardwicks embraced this idea, and their manufacturing empire grew to include investments in a foundry, a stove works, a woolen mill, banking, and mercantile interests.
The company had a key role during World War II, manufacturing wing flaps for C-46 transport planes and other aircraft components.
Joseph Hardwick served as president of the stove works from its founding in 1879 until his death in 1926.
Joseph and his wife, the former Cooksey Harris, were the parents of two children, Harris Belle (Hardwick) Knox and C. L. Hardwick II. Joseph and Cooksey lived in the home they had built until their deaths; Joseph’s in 1926, and Cooksey’s in 1932.
After the death of his father, C. L. Hardwick II, “C. L.” assumed the presidency and led the company until his death in 1961.
In 1982, Hardwick’s great-granddaughter, Joe (Corn) Stuart, daughter of James Corn, former mayor, and local historian, inherited the house from her aunt, Adella (Knox) Jarnigan. In 1984, Mrs.Stuart donated the house to the city and county as an addition to the public library.
Additional information about the house and its families is available at the History Branch and Archives.
Craigmiles (Carmichael Annex) House
The Craigmiles House-Carmichael Annex was built before the Civil War and first served as the residence of Pleasant M. Craigmiles, his wife Caroline, and their children, Augusta, Walter, Fanny, Edward, and Fanny Campbell. Sadly, only Augusta and Walter lived to adulthood.
The home’s simplistic design contains eight rooms, four fireplaces, heart of pine floors, and a steep staircase with plain wooden banisters and turned spindles. Colored glass highlights the front door. Originally, it also had a bay window on the northwest facade. Handmade bricks cover the house’s exterior as well as the original outdoor kitchen.
In 1861, when Tennessee seceded from the United States, Bradley County’s population divided into strong unionist and confederate factions. In Cleveland, a U.S. flag briefly flew in the courthouse square before Confederate forces seized control of the county. In the weeks that followed, the Craigmiles family, like so many of their friends and neighbors, split over conflicting allegiances. Pleasant and his brother William remained loyal to the Union, while two other brothers, John, a moderate rebel, and James, a violent rebel, cast their lot with the Confederacy.
The war tested Pleasant and Caroline, but they refused to abandon their loyalties or their home. Instead, they used their substantial means to support the families of Union men who had fled north rather than face conscription into the rebel armies. On several occasions Confederate troops searched the house for evidence of their Union sympathies. In one instance Pleasant reported that “…the rebels abused me, drew a pistol and presented it at my breast and threatened to shoot me in the presence of my wife and family.” On another, his daughter, Augusta, boldly handed rebel troops a six inch square American flag. It is no wonder that local rebels cursed Craigmiles as a “damned old Lincolnite.”
Through determination and resourcefulness, Craigmiles and Caroline survived the war and built an outstanding Italianate residence that you can see just across the street at 833 Ocoee.
The Craigmiles House-Carmichael Annex remained in private hands until 2005, when the Allan Jones Foundation, in recognition of Judge Virgil Carmichael gifted it to the city and county for the use of the public library. Judge Carmichael’s portrait is hung in the entry hall. His judicial robe and gavel are displayed, along with his military service medals.
Since that time the library has grown around the home, with major renovations completed in 2009.
Additional information is available at the History Branch and Archives.
Craigmiles House (833 N Ocoee)
Craigmiles House 833 Ocoee Street—Library Founding
The Craigmiles House played an important role in bringing to fruition a long-running effort to establish a library, one that dated back to a Woman’s Club initiative in 1895. In 1923, the Johnston family gifted the home, as well as funds to purchase furnishings and over 4,000 books, to the city of Cleveland, to establish a public library as a memorial to their mother, Sarah (Tucker) Johnston. Mrs. Johnston, affectionately known as Granny, was described as a “builder of character,” and praised as an advocate of education, especially for women, at the library’s dedication ceremony.
The new library, one of the first tax supported libraries in the state, officially opened in 1923. Ms. Nora Crimmins, a librarian from Chattanooga, was hired by the family to catalog the new book collection and to “set up” the library. At its opening, the library was one of only seven that lent books at no charge to both city and county residents. This fulfilled the family’s charge that “you keep its doors open to the remotest and the humblest citizen of the community…[and] keep it the seat of literary hospitality for Cleveland and Bradley County.
A donation by Mrs. Clyde Hardwick, given in 1964, enabled the expansion of the library by adding additional space for the collection. This addition was completed in 1965. The house remained the home of the library’s central branch until 1987, when the collection moved across Ocoee Street. The home continues to house the History Branch and Archives where visitors can research local history and genealogy.
In 2019, funded in large part by the Tucker-Johnston Foundation as well as many local donors, major renovations and restorations were made to the house’s interior and exterior. The first floor, where you can find Sarah (Tucker) Johnston’s portrait hanging in the parlor, is open to visitors during posted operating hours.
Johnston Tucker Center (Home of CBCPL History Branch)
Craigmiles House 833 Ocoee Street—The House
The Craigmiles House is one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Cleveland. Built by Pleasant and Caroline Craigmiles in 1866, it represented the cutting edge of fashion, style, and technology. The home’s craftsmanship speaks to a level of quality rarely seen in Cleveland. On its exterior, the house features a three-story high tower, ornate cornices, and expansive porches, while inside it boasts tall ceilings, intricate plaster moldings, walnut doors, and Italian marble fireplaces.
Prior to the Civil War, Craigmiles had been a successful businessman, but it was his clever dealings during the war that allowed him to afford such luxury. Officially a Union man, his business interests flourished as helped supply both armies with meat. In one year he made $300,000 (2020 dollars) trading livestock with the Confederate commissary agent, who happened to be his brother John.
The home passed to the Craigmiles’ daughter, Augusta. Augusta and her husband, Thomas Melmouth Osment remained in her family home until 1907.
Walter Scott Milne, a furniture manufacturer, purchased the home from the Osments in 1907. Several additions were made during the Milne family’s tenure, including the installation of the city’s first elevator, electricity, plumbing, tennis courts, and a man-made swimming pool. It is said that Mrs. Milne was Cleveland’s first woman driver.
In 1914 the home was sold to John Steed and his wife, the former Ida Johnston. As a young man, Steed had watched the homes’ construction and vowed that in the future he would own it. After John’s death the home was purchased by Ida’s brothers and sold to the city of Cleveland for one dollar with the caveat that it remain a public library forever.
The Craigmiles House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Additional information about the house and its families is available at the History Branch and Archives.