List of Carnegie Libraries on the National Register

Between 1886 and 1919, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded 1,679 public libraries across the United States. The ones that survive on the National Register today represent the immense pride of the towns that built them. For hundreds of small rural communities and emerging industrial cities, successfully securing a Carnegie grant and erecting a grand brick or stone library was the ultimate symbol that their town had transitioned from a rough frontier settlement into a cultured, permanent society.