The Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny is situated in the

Allegheny Center Allegheny Center is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh's North Side. Its zip code is 15212, and it has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by both council members for District 6 (Downtown, North Shore) and District 1 (Northside). History In ...

neighborhood of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. It was commissioned in 1886, the first Carnegie library to be commissioned in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Donated to the public by entrepreneur

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, it was built from 1886 to 1890 on a design by John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz. The library and musical conservatory was built of red and grey granite from Maine. The contractor was Vinalhaven, Maine's Bodwell Granite Company, which had furnished granite for major public works including the State, War and Navy Department building in Washington, DC., now called the

Eisenhower Executive Office Building The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB)—formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB), and originally as the State, War, and Navy Building—is a U.S. government building situated just west of the White House in the U.S. ca ...

. It did not open until 1890 thus making it the second Carnegie library to open. The first one to open being the

Carnegie Free Library of Braddock The Braddock Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, is the first Carnegie Library in the United States. As such, the library was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012, following its listing on the National Register of Historic Places i ...

, built for steel-workers in Braddock, 9 miles up the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...

from Pittsburgh. The building also features the first Carnegie Music Hall in the United States. The Music Hall at the Braddock Library would not open until an 1893 expansion of that structure. The running costs were met from local taxes – unlike the Carnegie Library in Braddock, which received an endowment from Carnegie. After a mid-2000s lightning strike, the library was moved to a new building a few blocks north on Federal Street. Following the move, the New Hazlett Theater was the primary tenant. In April 2019, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh opened Museum Lab, a makerspace for youth aged 10+. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1974.

Gallery

File:Carnegie Library Allegheny ReadingRoom 1900.jpg, Reading Room, ca. 1900 File:Carnegie Library Allegheny 1900.jpg, Women's Reading Room, ca. 1900 File:Carnegie Library Allegheny.jpg, Library entrance File:Carnegie Hall Allegheny.jpg, Carnegie Hall entrance (now New Hazlett Theater) File:Anderson Monument Allegheny 2013.jpg, Monument to Colonel James Anderson, who inspired Carnegie to donate free libraries

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Library buildings completed in 1889 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Carnegie libraries in Pennsylvania Clock towers in Pennsylvania Romanesque Revival architecture in Pennsylvania Libraries in Pittsburgh Libraries in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania City of Pittsburgh historic designations Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh 1889 establishments in Pennsylvania