Ernie Pyle 's NM Home, Now a Library, To Get Renovations

URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/132848metro01-14-04.htm

Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Ernie Pyle 's Home, Now a Library, To Get Renovations
By Jim Ludwick
Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

The Ernie Pyle Library will be getting a makeover. It's a pet project of Mayor Martin Chávez, who frequented the library as a youngster and noticed recently that the building needs better upkeep.

The small library at 900 Girard SE is the former home of Ernie Pyle, a nationally prominent war correspondent who won the Pulitzer Prize during World War II. Pyle was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire just before the war ended, and his home in Albuquerque was converted into a memorial library a few years later.

"It's my old neighborhood," Chávez said. "I used to ride my bicycle there. I'd lay my bike on the lawn and go in and read for hours."

Recently, Chávez drove by the building and noticed that the paint was peeling. He checked into it, and he found other problems with upkeep. The exterior needs to be scraped and painted, and some of the siding and trim should be replaced, Chávez said. The sprinkler system needs work. The windows might need replacement, and new signs are needed for the front yard, he said.

None of the work is major, but "we're going to give it a real makeover," he said. The exact scope and cost of the project have not been determined.

"It's a beautiful little place," and it's a unique library, Chávez said.

"You can get lost in all the little rooms. It speaks to a different time in Albuquerque's history," he said.

Pyle, originally from Indiana, worked as a reporter and editor, then traveled the United States as a columnist for Scripps Howard Newspapers in the 1930s. He covered World War II in Europe and the Pacific, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for distinguished war correspondence.

Pyle was killed in 1945 while with troops on a small island near Okinawa.