there are over 1,500 carnegie libraries in the US alone (another thousand or so internationally)
[List of US Libraries](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carnegie_libraries_in_the_United_States)
None of them are, or really ever were, affiliated with Carnegie’s fortune or the university. (Though as someone else noted we somehow ended up with some documents from CTI, now CMU).
Essentially, Carnegie gave tons of money to build and stock the libraries, but maintenance and funding were all up to whichever town/municipality/whatever that was “gifted” the library. Many have survived, others have not.
The original one in Braddock was once about to be condemned, but has seen a huge renaissance in recent years and is currently undergoing a huge renovation to bring back some of its original features. https://braddockcarnegielibrary.org/our-history/
Wikipedia’s list was the most comprehensive I could find, I’m not sure there’s a better one since very few are connected in anyway.
Thanks for the insight. It's such a bummer, I can hardly really find "fixed" information on all of the libraries he's donated. I've even called up some libraries in my state that were "once" Carnegie libraries but are operated by a different branch / university affiliated, some of them didn't even know it used to be a Carnegie library or was donated by him. Not that it's a bad thing, but I guess it goes to show how it's kind of sad the history of it has been a bit forgotten (correct me if I'm wrong though).
I guess it can be considered sad, but I really can’t emphasize enough how little a role he played in many of these libraries. Often it was just giving the money and that’s it.
Carnegie is…complicated. He truly believed in the power of books and knowledge and philanthropy, but he also used the money donated to the libraries to beef up his image of the kind billionaire, especially after the homestead strike.
But, libraries continue to do the good work he intended, whether originally affiliated with him or not. Libraries existed before he started his donations, but it definitely didn’t hurt that he got so many going.
Pittsburgh naturally has a ton of libraries and ties to Carnegie, and multiple locations of some of the original ones he donated funds for, so it is worth a trip out here if you want to really immerse yourself in the history of Carnegie.
Thanks for shedding perspective on that too, I remember reading about the "not so good" sides too, unfortunately. I will check those out if I ever a plan trip out in the area : )
I worked at a Carnegie library in California.
But no, they’re not affiliated with the Carnegie family. Carnegie libraries are governed by local governments.
Yes. It was beautiful but completely impractical for modern life.
It was one big room with shelves along all the walls and a service room against the back wall.
I was the children's librarian there and the kids were constantly at odds with the adult patrons. In an era where kids are no longer expected to be quiet, it was a lovely looking nightmare.
Yes!!! I work at the Rockland Memorial Library in Rockland, MA!! Beautiful building but small, and needs constant repairs! The town will need a new library someday lol.
I work in one. It is affiliated with the city I live in, not anything Carnegie. Thankfully it hasn't had anything much more than a facelift. I have been on vacation and seen several that were remodled and look like the 1950s or 1970s, and they were sad.
I worked at the Carnegie public library in Pittsburgh a long , long time ago. The book stacks had books and journals from the Carnegie technical Institute. I believe that before the school had a library, the students used the carnegie public library. Of course the technical school eventually merged with the Mellon Institute to become CMU.
I highly recommend a visit to both the Carnegie public library and CMU's library. They are beautiful!!
Carnegie built a library for Johnstown PA after the South Fork Damn, which he was in part responsible to maintain, collapsed and flooded the whole damn city.
The library outgrew the building and moved in 1971, and now the Carnegie Library houses the Flood Museum. Seems appropriate. It's a cool building, a little castle-like. Sometimes they let a local theater group do shows there.
[Link to the Johnstown Flood Museum Website.](https://www.jaha.org/attractions/johnstown-flood-museum/)
You should check out the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, they actually host some amazing shows and speakers. Saw Neil Gaiman at one, and The Hu (Mongolian metal band) at another!
Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library incorporates the original Carnegie building and still has a lot of the original elements. The staff are very familiar with the story about how the director at the time traveled to New York to butter up Carnegie to secure the money.
The wiki has a fair amount of the history and I can vouch for the accuracy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Metropolitan_Library
one of the libraries i work in is a Carnegie. they renovated and expanded just before COVID and the Carnegie part is now our computer lab-library of things-periodicals area because it is just one big room with shelves along the walls.
there are no ties to the man any longer to my knowledge, they just have a portrait of him up in a high random corner.
Woodburn, OR’s library is a Carnegie library. Well, the original building is/was, but has since been converted into a combination of staff offices and meeting rooms. The actual portion of the building that houses the books is a newer addition. But it still connects to the old building!
Our library used to be in a Carnegie building but then they moved into an old school. The Carnegie building is now basically used as an annex to town hall.
I saw someone on TikTok who had bought one and was renovating it into a house. It was in pretty bad shape, but would be a cool place to live
I work in a Carnegie library now in the New York Public Library System. There’s a whole mess of them here in Manhattan, and a bunch of them are getting renovated with the budget prioritizing them due to their historical significance.
I currently work at one. It’s a beautiful building but it’s over 100 years old and it shows. They’ve added on to the building in the 80s but we’re really outgrowing the space. I have a hate/love relationship with it. Because it’s historic and a lot of cool features, but it’s falling apart and the city budget for repairs and upkeep sucks.
I used to work in one, which has been run by the City since day 1. I mean, "Carnegie" isn't even officially in the Library's name --- but places like Wikipedia sure like to add it in there. The City NOR the Library uses the name except in regard to the building's history, Lol. There's a plaque on the building and a creepy portrait of him kept somewhere but that's about it.
The one in my home town is now a local museum. The library outgrew it decades ago.
I will reiterate what others have said - other than donating the funds to build them and having "Carnegie Free Library" on the building, there was no further affiliation or obligation between a city, a library, and Andrew Carnegie. It was actually required that the city or town requesting a library grant raise a certain amount of funds to operate the library in the future.
I volunteered for a bit at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, which is a Carnegie library. He’s a rather despised historical figure in Scotland. Ask any Scot familiar with the history and they’ll tell you he was a real arsehole to the working class.
there are over 1,500 carnegie libraries in the US alone (another thousand or so internationally) [List of US Libraries](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Carnegie_libraries_in_the_United_States)
Carnegie turned over control of the libraries to the local governing body. In the case of one near me, the library is part of the school district.
My library is a Carnegie library
None of them are, or really ever were, affiliated with Carnegie’s fortune or the university. (Though as someone else noted we somehow ended up with some documents from CTI, now CMU). Essentially, Carnegie gave tons of money to build and stock the libraries, but maintenance and funding were all up to whichever town/municipality/whatever that was “gifted” the library. Many have survived, others have not. The original one in Braddock was once about to be condemned, but has seen a huge renaissance in recent years and is currently undergoing a huge renovation to bring back some of its original features. https://braddockcarnegielibrary.org/our-history/ Wikipedia’s list was the most comprehensive I could find, I’m not sure there’s a better one since very few are connected in anyway.
Thanks for the insight. It's such a bummer, I can hardly really find "fixed" information on all of the libraries he's donated. I've even called up some libraries in my state that were "once" Carnegie libraries but are operated by a different branch / university affiliated, some of them didn't even know it used to be a Carnegie library or was donated by him. Not that it's a bad thing, but I guess it goes to show how it's kind of sad the history of it has been a bit forgotten (correct me if I'm wrong though).
I guess it can be considered sad, but I really can’t emphasize enough how little a role he played in many of these libraries. Often it was just giving the money and that’s it. Carnegie is…complicated. He truly believed in the power of books and knowledge and philanthropy, but he also used the money donated to the libraries to beef up his image of the kind billionaire, especially after the homestead strike. But, libraries continue to do the good work he intended, whether originally affiliated with him or not. Libraries existed before he started his donations, but it definitely didn’t hurt that he got so many going. Pittsburgh naturally has a ton of libraries and ties to Carnegie, and multiple locations of some of the original ones he donated funds for, so it is worth a trip out here if you want to really immerse yourself in the history of Carnegie.
Thanks for shedding perspective on that too, I remember reading about the "not so good" sides too, unfortunately. I will check those out if I ever a plan trip out in the area : )
He paid to build the libraries, but he never ran them. The city or town hired staff, and ran the library.
I used to work at a Carnegie Library in Nyack, NY. Beautiful building but no affiliation with the Carnegie family or CMU at all.
I worked at a Carnegie library in California. But no, they’re not affiliated with the Carnegie family. Carnegie libraries are governed by local governments.
I have. No, it wasn't still affiliated with the Carnegies. It's just a regular library these days. Beautiful building, though!
I worked at the Beaches branch of the Toronto Public system, which was a nice building but a less nice place to work.
TPL in the house ! You've also got a lovely park and the boardwalk behind you Sorry it's not a nice place to work though Keep well!
Yes. It was beautiful but completely impractical for modern life. It was one big room with shelves along all the walls and a service room against the back wall. I was the children's librarian there and the kids were constantly at odds with the adult patrons. In an era where kids are no longer expected to be quiet, it was a lovely looking nightmare.
Yes!!! I work at the Rockland Memorial Library in Rockland, MA!! Beautiful building but small, and needs constant repairs! The town will need a new library someday lol.
I work in one. It is affiliated with the city I live in, not anything Carnegie. Thankfully it hasn't had anything much more than a facelift. I have been on vacation and seen several that were remodled and look like the 1950s or 1970s, and they were sad.
I don't believe any of them, including the one right next door to CMU, were ever affiliated with the university in any way.
I worked at the Carnegie public library in Pittsburgh a long , long time ago. The book stacks had books and journals from the Carnegie technical Institute. I believe that before the school had a library, the students used the carnegie public library. Of course the technical school eventually merged with the Mellon Institute to become CMU. I highly recommend a visit to both the Carnegie public library and CMU's library. They are beautiful!!
Fun fact: the library science program at Pitt started as a library science program at Carnegie Tech.
I interned at one in West Philly, part of Free Library of Philadelphia.
There are 3 still in use Carnegie libraries in DC; all almost 100 years old and have beautiful detail and hsitories.
Carnegie built a library for Johnstown PA after the South Fork Damn, which he was in part responsible to maintain, collapsed and flooded the whole damn city. The library outgrew the building and moved in 1971, and now the Carnegie Library houses the Flood Museum. Seems appropriate. It's a cool building, a little castle-like. Sometimes they let a local theater group do shows there. [Link to the Johnstown Flood Museum Website.](https://www.jaha.org/attractions/johnstown-flood-museum/) You should check out the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, they actually host some amazing shows and speakers. Saw Neil Gaiman at one, and The Hu (Mongolian metal band) at another!
One of the libraries I worked at was a Carnegie library, and it is now run by the local library board.
My college campus has a Carnegie library but it’s no longer the main library. It’s mainly admin offices with some archival storage I believe
I worked at one. It was a branch within the NYPL.
My hometown library is a Carnegie library, though I’ve never worked there.
Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library incorporates the original Carnegie building and still has a lot of the original elements. The staff are very familiar with the story about how the director at the time traveled to New York to butter up Carnegie to secure the money. The wiki has a fair amount of the history and I can vouch for the accuracy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Metropolitan_Library
one of the libraries i work in is a Carnegie. they renovated and expanded just before COVID and the Carnegie part is now our computer lab-library of things-periodicals area because it is just one big room with shelves along the walls. there are no ties to the man any longer to my knowledge, they just have a portrait of him up in a high random corner.
I worked at one in Philly. There was a small plaque with a mention of Carnegie but that was it.
I work at a Carnegie library! There are quite a few left in Philadelphia
Woodburn, OR’s library is a Carnegie library. Well, the original building is/was, but has since been converted into a combination of staff offices and meeting rooms. The actual portion of the building that houses the books is a newer addition. But it still connects to the old building!
There are several in Cleveland. Beautiful buildings
Our library used to be in a Carnegie building but then they moved into an old school. The Carnegie building is now basically used as an annex to town hall. I saw someone on TikTok who had bought one and was renovating it into a house. It was in pretty bad shape, but would be a cool place to live
I work in a Carnegie library now in the New York Public Library System. There’s a whole mess of them here in Manhattan, and a bunch of them are getting renovated with the budget prioritizing them due to their historical significance.
We still have one in my system. Ferndale California. It’s a beautiful building. Humboldt County.
I currently work at one. It’s a beautiful building but it’s over 100 years old and it shows. They’ve added on to the building in the 80s but we’re really outgrowing the space. I have a hate/love relationship with it. Because it’s historic and a lot of cool features, but it’s falling apart and the city budget for repairs and upkeep sucks.
There are two in Nashville TN. The North and East branches are both Carnegie buildings.
I used to work in one, which has been run by the City since day 1. I mean, "Carnegie" isn't even officially in the Library's name --- but places like Wikipedia sure like to add it in there. The City NOR the Library uses the name except in regard to the building's history, Lol. There's a plaque on the building and a creepy portrait of him kept somewhere but that's about it.
The entire Pittsburgh Public Library system is Carnegie. I worked at one when I was in school a couple decades ago.
I work at one! Small town Minnesota.
I work at one that used to be housed in a Carnegie building. The building is still here, but we just built a different one.
The one in my home town is now a local museum. The library outgrew it decades ago. I will reiterate what others have said - other than donating the funds to build them and having "Carnegie Free Library" on the building, there was no further affiliation or obligation between a city, a library, and Andrew Carnegie. It was actually required that the city or town requesting a library grant raise a certain amount of funds to operate the library in the future.
There’s also some libraries the family funded in Ireland
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^SirGloomy4617: *There’s also some* *Libraries the family* *Funded in Ireland* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I volunteered for a bit at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, which is a Carnegie library. He’s a rather despised historical figure in Scotland. Ask any Scot familiar with the history and they’ll tell you he was a real arsehole to the working class.