Travel and background

Carnegie libraries on the National Register: counts by state

John HarrisonUpdated October 2026

As of the National Park Service list of National Register properties dated May 22, 2026, 303 individually listed buildings carry both “Carnegie” and “library” in their official or alternate names. They are spread across 37 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Kansas leads with 37, then California (32) and Nebraska (27). Another 14 historic districts name a Carnegie library among their resources.

These figures are current as of October 2026. This site is independent of the National Park Service, which keeps the Register.

How we counted

The count comes from the NPS spreadsheet of listed properties, not from any secondary list. We kept every row where the Property Name or Other Names field contains “Carnegie” and also contains “library” (or “biblioteca”, which captured Puerto Rico’s Biblioteca Carnegie). That rule excludes 12 Carnegie-named listings that are not libraries or cannot be confirmed as one: Carnegie Hall in New York and a different Carnegie Hall in Virginia, the Andrew Carnegie Mansion, three Carnegie Institution buildings in Washington, the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge in Cleveland, Lake Carnegie Historic District in New Jersey, Carnegie Hall of Moores Hill College in Indiana, the Carnegie Building in Atlanta, and two historic districts in Montana and South Dakota whose cross-references are cut off in the NPS file. Of the 317 rows that passed, 303 are classed as buildings and 14 are historic districts; the table counts buildings only. Forty-two of the 303 have “Carnegie” only in the Other Names field, so a search on the official name alone would miss them.

The method undercounts. Carnegie paid for the building, and towns named the result whatever they liked. Massachusetts and Virginia both have Carnegie-funded buildings on the Register, but none passed this name test, so they do not appear below. Treat the table as a floor.

Listed Carnegie library buildings by state

The earliest of these to be listed was Washington’s Central Public Library, on December 3, 1969; the most recent is the Enfield Carnegie Library in Connecticut, listed February 12, 2025. Only one is a National Historic Landmark: the Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, Pennsylvania, the first Carnegie library to open in the United States.

Property pages for the ten covered states

The site currently has pages for New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, California, Illinois, Georgia and North Carolina. Each page summarizes the nomination and links to the original document. Three Ohio listings (the Otterbein University, Cleveland Hough Branch and Lorain Carnegie libraries) have no page yet because their nominations are not loaded.

Massachusetts: no listing matched the name filter.

New York (3 listed; 3 with pages): Carnegie Library (North Tonawanda); Kingston City Library (Kingston); Niagara Falls Public Library (Niagara Falls)

California (32 listed; 32 with pages): Calexico Carnegie Library (Calexico); Carnegie Free Library (Eureka); Carnegie Library (Roseville); Carnegie Library (Anaheim); Carnegie Public Library Building (Colton); Carnegie, Andrew, Library (Corona); Colusa Carnegie Library (Colusa); Dixon Carnegie Library (Dixon); East San Jose Carnegie Library (San Jose); Exeter Public Library (Exeter); Ferndale Public Library (Ferndale); Free Public Library of Petaluma (Petaluma); Gilroy Free Library (Gilroy); Hanford Carnegie Library (Hanford); Healdsburg Carnegie Library (Healdsburg); Hollister Carnegie Library (Hollister); Lakeport Carnegie Library (Lakeport); Lincoln Public Library (Lincoln); Livermore Carnegie Library and Park (Livermore); Lompoc Public Library (Lompoc); Nevada City Free Public Library (Nevada City); Oakland Public Library (Oakland); Oroville Carnegie Library (Oroville); Patterson Branch Library (Patterson); Riverbank Branch Library (Riverbank); Robles, Paso, Carnegie Library (Paso Robles); San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library (San Luis Obispo); Turlock Carnegie Library (Turlock); Upland Public Library (Upland); Willits Carnegie Library (Willits); Yolo Branch Library (Yolo); Yreka Carnegie Library (Yreka)

Ohio (12 listed; 9 with pages): Carnegie Library (Sandusky); Carnegie Library (Old Wilberforce University Campus) (Wilberforce); Carnegie Library and Henry St. Clair Memorial Hall (Greenville); Carnegie Library of Steubenville (Steubenville); Carnegie Public Library (East Liverpool); Paulding County Carnegie Library (Paulding); Pickerington Carnegie Library (Pickerington); Warren Public Library (Warren); Xenia Carnegie Library (Xenia)

Virginia: no listing matched the name filter.

North Carolina (1 listed; 1 with pages): Elliott-Carnegie Library (Hickory)

Texas (8 listed; 8 with pages): Ballinger Carnegie Library (Ballinger); Bryan Carnegie Library (Bryan); Carnegie Public Library (Belton); Carnegie Public Library (Tyler); Cleburne Carnegie Library (Cleburne); Franklin Carnegie Library (Franklin); Palestine Carnegie Library (Palestine); Terrell Carnegie Library (Terrell)

Georgia (8 listed; 8 with pages): Carnegie Library (Dublin); Carnegie Library Building (Athens); Carnegie Library of Albany (Albany); Carnegie Library of Barnesville (Barnesville); Carnegie Library of Moultrie (Moultrie); Carnegie Library of Valdosta (Valdosta); Lavonia Carnegie Library (Lavonia); Wallace, Anne, Branch-Carnegie Library of Atlanta (Atlanta)

Illinois (6 listed; 6 with pages): Arcola Carnegie Public Library (Arcola); Hoopeston Carnegie Public Library (Hoopeston); Olney Carnegie Library (Olney); Paris Carnegie Public Library (Paris); Paxton Carnegie Public Library (Paxton); Waukegan Public Library (Waukegan)

Pennsylvania (8 listed; 8 with pages): Cambria Public Library Building (Johnstown); Carnegie Free Library (Connellsville); Carnegie Free Library (McKeesport); Carnegie Free Library Of Braddock (Braddock); Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny (Pittsburgh); Carnegie Free Library, Beaver Falls (Beaver Falls); Carnegie Institute and Library (Pittsburgh); Carnegie, Andrew, Free Library (Carnegie)

How the Carnegie library program worked

Andrew Carnegie’s first library gift went to his birthplace, Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1881. In 1886 he offered $250,000 to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh, and that library opened in 1890 with President Benjamin Harrison speaking at the dedication; the Braddock library, which opened in 1889, was the first Carnegie library to open. By the time the building grants ended, Carnegie Corporation of New York counts some $56 million spent on 2,509 public library buildings worldwide, 1,681 of them in 1,412 American communities at a cost of more than $40 million. The National Park Service’s figures are slightly different, 1,679 U.S. buildings between 1886 and 1919, because sources count annexes and branch systems differently.

The deal was standardized. NPS describes two phases: a “retail” period from 1886 to 1896, when $1,860,869 went to 14 endowed buildings in six communities, several of them multipurpose centers with recreation facilities, and a “wholesale” period after 1896, when $39,172,981 went to 1,406 towns for library-only buildings. In the wholesale period a town wrote to Carnegie’s secretary, James Bertram, answered a printed schedule of questions about population, existing books, circulation and finances, and had its council pass a resolution accepting two conditions: provide a site large enough for future expansion, and pledge annual operating money equal to 10 percent of the grant. Carnegie Corporation’s own history phrases the condition as the community agreeing to accept and maintain the library as a public institution. Carnegie Corporation was established in 1911 and took over the program; it made its final building grants in 1917, citing wartime shortages, and shifted to library training and appraisal.

Bertram also shaped the buildings. From 1908 he asked for plans before money was released, and for three years every grantee had to submit drawings. His pamphlet, titled “Notes on Library Bildings” in Carnegie’s simplified spelling, set minimum standards and six model floor plans: a raised basement 9 to 10 feet high, a main floor 12 to 15 feet high, an adult reading room on one side, a children’s room on the other and the librarian’s desk between them facing the door. Exteriors were left to the town but were supposed to be plain. NPS notes that most Carnegie libraries are brick, none are wood, and the exterior staircase to a raised main floor is the common identifying feature.

In 2025 Carnegie Corporation announced $10,000 gifts to nearly 1,350 surviving Carnegie libraries for the nation’s 250th anniversary, part of a $20 million program it calls Carnegie Libraries 250.

What the listed buildings are used for now

The nominations for the covered-state pages give a fair sample of what happened to the buildings once towns outgrew them. Still serving as libraries at the time of nomination: Dixon, East San Jose, Ferndale, Lincoln, Nevada City and Yolo in California; Albany, Barnesville and Lavonia in Georgia; Arcola, Hoopeston, Paris and Paxton in Illinois; East Liverpool, Paulding, Pickerington and Steubenville in Ohio; Ballinger, Cleburne and Tyler in Texas. Converted: Hollister’s became city hall, Colusa’s and Yreka’s police stations, Hanford’s, San Luis Obispo’s, Lompoc’s, Belton’s and Terrell’s museums, Turlock’s an arts center, Moultrie’s law offices and Atlanta’s Anne Wallace Branch a bank. A few, including Lakeport and Calexico, were vacant when nominated. See buying a vacant Register property for what that involves.

Visiting

A Carnegie library that is still a library is open to anyone during library hours. Converted buildings follow their new owner’s rules, and a few are private offices with no public access. Check the operator’s website before travelling, and if you want to confirm whether a particular building near you is listed, use the address lookup. For how any of these buildings got on the Register in the first place, see how the National Register works.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Researched from the sources above and drafted with AI assistance; published under the editor's name, corrections welcome. See the editorial policy.