Staff Writer

EAST LIVERPOOL –For Mary (Martha) (Cunningham) Garvey, currently of Uhrichsville, a trip to the East Liverpool Carnegie library with her two of her three sons, Dwayne and Barry, on Feb. 24, to celebrate her 94th birthday, was like coming home.

Her visit included visiting the basement which once served as living quarters for caretakers of the library and a place she called home.

Martha’s parents, Alfred Herman and Laura Anna Cunningham, served as caretakers for the library while living in the basement during the early 1900s.

Mary Martha Garvey was one of three children born in the East Liverpool Carnegie Library to parents Alfred Herman and Laura Anna Cunningham who served as the library caretakers and while living in the basement. (Submitted photo)

Her parents had seven children. She was their youngest child and only daughter. She was one of three of the siblings born in the basement apartment and the only one who was married there.

When Martha first arrived in the basement, which in the 1990s has undergone some major renovations to make the library handicap accessible and add office space, she said she was not surprised to see that it was different from the way she remembered it.

“This is nothing like it was when I lived here,” she said. “I have so many memories, but it looks nothing like it did.”

Dwayne shared that her parents (his grandparents) were the library custodians for over 15 years the first time they lived there and that his grandparents had moved from the library in 1935, when Martha was 6 years old and built a house on McCoy Avenue and then moved back in after she graduated when her brother Floyd, who was also born in the library’s basement became the custodian.

“I only had two homes growing up, here and Mccoy Avenue,” Martha said. “We moved back here and that was how I happened to be married here.”

In 1949, Mary Martha (Cunningham) Garvey married her husband Albert in the East Liverpool Carnegie Library basement, 20 years after being there. (Submitted photo)

Martha recalled how she had to wait until after the library closed at 8 p.m. to hold her wedding so that Mary Hall and Ruth Cartwright, who were the librarian and assistant librarian at the time, could attend her wedding which took place under one of the archways in living room of the basement.

While touring the library on her birthday, Martha recalled several fond memories from the time she called it home such as her mom baking and freezing apple pies on a day they were painting the furnace room and discovered when they went to eat the pies they tasted like paint. But they still ate them anyways.

An entryway into the library reminded her of the time she jokingly slapped her husband, then boyfriend, Albert Garvey when she was about 18-19 years old.

She shared how he came to visit, and they were by the door goofing off and he said something as he was leaving, and she told him that if he came back there, she would slap him in the face. He came back and she slapped him in the face just as a man came walking around the corner of the building.

The man looked at Albert and commented on him getting slapped and kept on walking. Albert came back into the living area and rolled on the floor laughing.

Mary Martha Garvey was one of three children born in the East Liverpool Carnegie Library to parents Alfred Herman and Laura Anna Cunningham who served as the library caretakers and while living in the basement. (Submitted photo)

She also recalled the time when Floyd went running into the library to tell Hall that he just hollered at (Charles) Lindburgh as he flew over East Liverpool.

“He said, ‘Miss Hall I just hollered at Lindburgh,’ and she said, ‘you did and how did you know it was Lindburgh?’ and he said ‘because I hollered up and said hi Lindburgh and he hollered back hi Floyd,'” Martha said.

One of her funniest memories was watching her mom chase away upper classmen who were initiating freshmen. The upperclassmen would paint the freshmen with lipstick while her mom was hosing down the steps. Her mom told them to leave and when they didn’t, she turned on the hose on them.

The Great Depression was taking place during this time but living at the library seemed to shelter Martha and her family from the effects of it. The family didn’t worry much about entertainment because having free roam of the library allowed them to make their own. Martha spent most of her time upstairs looking at slides through a stereoscope of locations from around the world. She said she would borrow books but never checked them out.

In addition to being custodian for the library her father also worked at C.C. Thompson Pottery.

Mary Martha Garvey’s parents, Alfred Herman and Laura Anna Cunningham, served as the East Liverpool Carnegie Library’s caretakers and lived in the basement with their seven children, three of which were born in the library. (Submitted photo)

Dwayne said he was amazed at the fact they six years into the Depression his grandfather, between working at the library and the pottery was able to build a house for the family, which according to Martha cost her father $6,000 to build in 1935.

The family would move from that house back into the library in 1947, a year after Martha graduated high School. She lived there until she married March 17, 1949.

The library quit using the basement for living quarters after her parents moved out the second time.

“We were the last ones to live here, and we knew when we moved out, we were going to be the last ones,” Martha said. “It brings back a lot of memories being here, but there are so many changes. I really enjoyed living here.”

Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com

A newspaper article was written on Mary Martha Garvey’s and her husband Albert’s 50th wedding anniversary with photos from of the couple anniversary and 1949 wedding which took place in the library. (Submitted photo)

While celebrating her 94th birthday by visiting the East Liverpool Carnegie library where she was born and married with her sons Bruce and Dwayne, Mary Martha Garvey shows the library’s fiscal officer, Mary Deem an album containing her wedding photos. (Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

Dwayne Garvey, his mother Mary (Martha)Garvey and East Liverpool Carnegie Library Fiscal Officer Mary Deem talk about Martha’s history with the library. Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)