The Red Oak Public Library is located in Red Oak, Iowa, United States. Andrew Carnegie accepted the city's application for a grant for $12,500 on November 27, 1906. The Chicago architectural firm of

Patton & Miller Patton & Miller was an architectural firm of Chicago, Illinois. Normand Smith Patton and Grant C. Miller designed over 100 Carnegie libraries nationwide, including Buffalo Township Public Library, built in 1894, and 14 more in Illinois.Schnell ...

designed the Tudor Revival structure. It was dedicated on October 8, 1909. The two-story building features a side- gable plan, and rustic brick-and-

half-timbered Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

style. It is somewhat unusual in that its main entrance was at grade. The corners are buttresses that rise from the base in a concave curve and disappear into the walls before they emerge above the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

as parapets. A two-story addition was built onto the rear of the building in 1924 to house a new book stack, and another two-story addition was built on the south side to house reading rooms. Both additions complement the structure's original design. The building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2016 it was included as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the

Red Oak Downtown Historic District The Red Oak Downtown Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Red Oak, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. At the time of its nomination it contained 104 res ...

References

Library buildings completed in 1909 Carnegie libraries in Iowa Public libraries in Iowa Tudor Revival architecture in Iowa Red Oak, Iowa Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Iowa Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub