{"nrhp_refnum":"85000473","name":"Carnegie Public Library","other_names":["Bell County Museum"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"201 N. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belton","county":"Bell County","state":"TX","lat":31.057629607000024,"lon":-97.46302049099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-03-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story buff brick public library at 201 North Main Street in Belton, Bell County, Texas, built in 1904 with a Beaux-Arts-influenced design. It now serves as the Bell County Museum.","why_significant":"It is one of the most intact and opulent of about a dozen surviving Carnegie libraries in Texas, out of more than thirty once built. It was funded by a personal $10,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie and shows exuberant Beaux Arts classicism unmatched in Belton. It also served as the city's educational and cultural center until 1975.","narrative":"Built in 1904, this two-story library on North Main Street in Belton has buff brick walls over load-bearing clay tile, a shallow hipped roof, and a central portico of giant Ionic columns beneath a pediment. Inside, Ionic columns divide the ground floor into four main spaces, pressed-tin ceilings survive, and a large lecture room fills the second floor. The Women's Wednesday Club began a library in 1899 with about 350 donated books and pursued Carnegie funding for years. Andrew Carnegie eventually gave $10,000 personally, and citizens provided the lot. Smith and Moore designed the building, and local contractor Ben Lee built it. The library served Belton and southern and western Bell County until 1975, and its auditorium hosted lectures, theater, graduations, and dances. It then became the Bell County Museum, and restoration removed later alterations. Only about a dozen of Texas's thirty-plus Carnegie libraries remain, and this is among the most intact.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Ben D. Lee, contractor; Smith & Moore Architects","architectural_style":"Beaux-Arts-influenced early 20th-century public building","criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored gradually after becoming the Bell County Museum in 1975; in good condition but needing some minor repairs. The classification section also marks it as vacant and work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:21.609761-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/9710/40971056/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/85000473.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000473/66bd5b7047-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000473/66bd5b7047-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Billy Hathorn","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carnegie_Museum_in_Belton,_TX_IMG_2412.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Billy Hathorn</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carnegie_Museum_in_Belton,_TX_IMG_2412.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"90001868","name":"Belton Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/belton-commercial-historic-district-90001868/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40971056","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110001538"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/bell-county/carnegie-public-library-85000473/"}