{"nrhp_refnum":"79003007","name":"Carnegie Public Library","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"125 S. College St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tyler","county":"Smith County","state":"TX","lat":32.35003926600007,"lon":-95.30221631599994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-03-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story-plus-basement buff brick and limestone public library at 125 South College Street in Tyler, Smith County, Texas, built in 1904 to designs by Patton and Miller of Chicago, with D. Mahoney of Tyler as contractor.","why_significant":"It was one of the original Carnegie libraries, built with a $15,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie on a lot bought by 172 Tyler citizens. It has served continuously as Tyler's only public library and as a cultural center, with an auditorium used for recitals, plays and lectures. It was the fifteenth of thirty-four Carnegie libraries built in Texas.","narrative":"Tyler's Carnegie library, at 125 South College Street, was completed in 1904 as a two-story masonry building with a basement. It is built of buff brick and limestone and topped by a low hipped roof of red clay tile. The front has a broken pediment and stained glass transom over the door, with segmentally arched windows. Andrew Carnegie gave $15,000 on condition that the city supply the lot and annual upkeep. Tyler's citizens, 172 of them, raised the money for the site. It was the fifteenth of thirty-four Carnegie libraries built in Texas. A 1935-36 addition, funded by a $25,000 WPA grant, doubled its size and closely matched the original construction. Murals by Douthett Wilson of Dallas were added then. For many years the second-floor auditorium, Carnegie Hall, was the city's only public hall, hosting recitals, plays and lectures. The library also worked with local schools and ran children's programs, making it a long-lived center of community life.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Patton and Miller - Chicago (Architect); D. Mahoney - Tyler (Contractor)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as a library; exterior and interior described as in good condition, with a new library planned across the street to the south.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.536398-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/9733/40973355/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/79003007.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003007/6f6c40220e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003007/6f6c40220e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyler_carnegie_library.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyler_carnegie_library.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100008283","name":"Tyler Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/tyler-downtown-historic-district-100008283/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973355","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Public_Library_(Tyler,_Texas)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1043969"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/smith-county/carnegie-public-library-79003007/"}