Carnegie Public Library  by illinilass

Carnegie Public Library

Lewistown, Illinois. The library moved to a new building several years ago.
This is now a shop selling mainly homemade crafts. Beautifully restored by the current owner who has many fond memories of the library growing up.
Andrew Carnegie a Scottish American industrialist and philanthropist had 2509 libraries built world wide. 1883-1929. According to Wikipedia 800 of the 1795 built in the US are still in use.
The woodwork was done by hand. An itinerate.labour came to town to do the woodwork and later stayed to open a furniture store.
Built in 1906, the year my mother was born.
You have captured the beauty of this historical treasure!
September 29th, 2024  
Such amazing shots and interesting narrative, it must have been a wonderful visit.
September 29th, 2024  
What a beautiful building.
September 29th, 2024  
Nice
September 29th, 2024  
Lovely pictures and a very interesting story.
September 29th, 2024  
Nice building!
September 29th, 2024  
Very interesting to read, bet it’s a fun place to visit… lovely collage.
September 29th, 2024  
Such a beautiful building
September 29th, 2024  
Seems like a great place to shop for pressies
September 29th, 2024  
Wonderful collage
September 29th, 2024  
Andrew Carnegie built my hometown library, too - Duluth MN. My attorney had his office there in the late 90's early 00's. Since I moved I'm not sure what is there now. I remember the card catalogs. :)
September 29th, 2024  
Very nice collage
September 29th, 2024  
Beautiful library and collage.
We too have an Andrew Carnegie library in our town, it was built in 1910. The library has recently moved down the street and an architect bought the building for his business. Apparently he built 111 libraries in Ontario, Canada.
September 29th, 2024  
@radiogirl
So glad to hear your Carnegie library was saved by someone local. That’s what happened to the one in Lewistown. I checked and 106:were built in Illinois. I should have asked our 365 friends if they had one in their town or where they grew up. Would love to see some pics of your library.
September 30th, 2024  
@diane5812
I just looked up the Duluth library, quite grand! It says it was converted to an office building in 1980. Hope it’s still in good shape.
September 30th, 2024  
Beautiful collage
October 3rd, 2024  
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