Article from CityLab about Washington, DC’s Spy Library proposed additions to the classic Carnegie Library. The request however was denied by District preservationists.
Across the nation, the libraries that Andrew Carnegie built have been transformed and reused as historical museums, city halls, art centers, and even bars and restaurants, sometimes by dramatic means.
It is a testament to Carnegie’s philanthropic investment in cities—the largest in U.S. history—that so many of these buildings are still in use. Yet no one can say exactly how many are standing now.
“As far as I’m aware, the last person to conduct an inventory of Carnegie libraries was Theodore Jones, back in 1997,” says Ron Sexton, librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Almost 20 years later, Jones’s book, Carnegie Libraries Across America: A Public Legacy, still offers the best estimate to a question that may not have an exact answer.
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