IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Strathleven Place, DUMBARTON, G82 1BD

For earlier pictures and for architectural information, see Image and Image See also Image, a feature incorporated in the extension (specifically, in relation to the present picture, the detail is from the right-hand side of the building). For a closer look at some other details, see Image and Image The library as an institution pre-dates this building. According to a local history factsheet, premises were first found in Heggie's Buildings (see the last part of my description of Image for comments on its location); the library later moved to a more suitable site in the William Denny Memorial Institute on Church Street, opening there in 1892. From the Denny Institute, the library would next move to its current home, the building shown in the present picture. Just inside and to the right of the entrance is a panel with information about the building: "Dumbarton Public Library This building was the gift of Andrew Carnegie LL.D. Opened 26th Sept 1910." (The factsheet just mentioned states that it opened to the public on the 30th of September 1910.) Facing that panel (inside and just to the left of the entrance) is one with a list of conveners: Dumbarton Public Library Conveners 1881 Archibald Robertson 1887 John Rankin 1891 Rev W Stevens D.D. 1901 Wm H Henderson 1913 Peter Thomson 1937 Robert McArthur 1950 Fergus Roberts 1962 I.M.M.MacPhail M.A., Ph.D. 1974 D Lynch J.P., C.Eng., D.R.T.C.

Strathleven Place.

Funded by Andrew Carnegie, designed by William Reid, opened in 1910. The carbuncle extension to the right opened in 1968, architect unknown.

For the whole building, see Image and Image The stone is set above a fire exit on the eastern side of the building. [UPDATE, AUGUST 2016: I found that Dumbarton Library had a pile of printouts, featuring only my picture from this page, and a very much cut-down version of my accompanying text from this page, with no credit to me for either. I choose to mention this here because library staff, if anyone, ought to be thoroughly acquainted with the legalities of copyright and licensing, and should be setting a better example.] The stone bears the text "Tu Des Corona Decus", and the dates 1732 and 1790. The stone came from the Mackenzie House (the townhouse of the Mackenzies of Caldarvan, on whom see Image). The Mackenzie House stood in the High Street, and 1732 and 1790 are the dates when it was built and enlarged, respectively. It was demolished in 1907; see Image for more information. The stone is said to have originally come from St Mary's Collegiate Church, of which the most prominent remnant is Image Smaller fragments of the Collegiate Church survive; some, like the one shown in the present photograph, have been incorporated into the fabric of later buildings; see Image for other examples (that item contains a link to a page with a picture of the Mackenzie House; in that picture, the stone shown in the present photograph can be seen above the central dormer window). A good description of this stone can be found in Donald MacLeod's "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern" (1881), a large-format book, of which only 200 copies were printed. In the section entitled "Old Tolbuith and Mackenzie's House", the book discusses the three dormer windows of the Mackenzie House. Of these, it says that "over the one to the left there is as finial a somewhat grotesque figure of a diminutive man or boy in sitting posture, having a round flat bonnet on his head. Over the imposing central window there is a Latin cross, crowned by a mitre, on one side of which there is a Scotch thistle, and on the other side a fleur-de-lys, all admirably sculptured, beneath which there is this inscription:– "Tu des, corona decus"(*), "Do thou give me glory for a crown". The eastmost of the dormer windows has for finial a small globular shaped stone, which looks as if it had formed a portion of a pinnacle of the 'Auld Colledge'." [(*) A personal observation: that Latin phrase seem ungrammatical.] By "Auld Colledge", the author means the Collegiate Church. The facing page of the book features an illustration of the Mackenzie House, with this stone visible above the central dormer window. The old tolbooth appears in the same illustration; the Mackenzie House was on the north side of the High Street, and the old tolbooth was immediately next to it on the left (west). Readers can examine the same picture online: see the "Ancient stones, Glencairn's Greit House" link given above; that item has a link to the picture.

See Image and linked images for more information, and for views of the whole building.

See Image and linked images for more information, and for views of the whole building.

Dated 1909, but opened in 1910, the library was funded by Andrew Carnegie. The concrete extension on the right was added in the 1960s.

Dumbarton's coat of arms, featuring an elephant. Dated 1909, but opened in 1910, the library was funded by Andrew Carnegie.

This ancient arch is a remnant of St Mary's Collegiate Church; over the centuries, it has been moved twice. It now stands on the eastern side of the Municipal Buildings. For a detailed description, and for a better view (in the opposite direction) see Image Visible in the background, on the left, is a Image

This is the second-oldest structure in Dumbarton (the oldest being Dumbarton Rock, a stronghold continuously occupied since at least 460AD; the third-oldest structure, and oldest standing building, is "Glencairn's Greit House", built in 1623: Image). The College Bow is a pointed stone arch, the only substantial surviving remnant of St Mary's Collegiate Church (although some much smaller components of the Collegiate Church are extant; see, for example, Image and Image). The Collegiate Church was founded c.1450 by Isabel (Isabella), countess of Lennox, and the arch was probably part of its tower. In the background, the railway line, near Dumbarton Central Station, crosses above the road. For a view of the College Bow in the opposite direction, see Image Dr I.M.M.MacPhail's "Dumbarton Through the Centuries" (1972) notes that "there stood near the site of the present Central Railway Station the Chapel of St Mary, which was mentioned in a fourteenth century document in connection with the loss of the seal of the Bishop of Glasgow nearby and its subsequent discovery by a monk" and that the Collegiate Church of St Mary "was built on the lands of the earlier Chapel of St Mary at the site of the present Central Railway Station". This archway has been moved more than once. In 1850, when the railway was built, it was moved to form a gateway for the Burgh Academy, further down College Street (the medieval Cross Vennel). It was moved again in 1907 to its present location, standing in front of Image, a portion of which can be seen in the opposite-direction view of the College Bow (link given earlier).