The Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall (also known as the ACFL&MH or "Carnegie Carnegie") is a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

and music hall located at 300 Beechwood Avenue in

Carnegie, Pennsylvania Carnegie () is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,134 in the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. History Carnegie is named after Andrew Carnegie, who donated one of his libr ...

. Like hundreds of other Carnegie libraries, the construction of the ACFL&MH, which opened in 1901, was funded by

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. The ACFL&MH has been recognized as a historic landmark and appears on the

List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) Historic Landmark plaque program was begun in 1968 in order to identify architecturally significant structures and significant pieces of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States's local herit ...

and the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

History

Andrew Carnegie's decision to build a library in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, was originally inspired by the town's adoption of his name. In 1894, the neighboring

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

of Chartiers and Mansfield voted to merge their communities into one larger borough and chose to name their new town in honor of Carnegie. Carnegie was so moved by the gesture that he offered to build a public library in the middle of the town. On April 26, 1898, Carnegie gifted the town with an initial grant of US$200,000 for the building of the library and an attached music hall, lecture hall, and gymnasium; he also provided an additional $10,000 for the library to purchase books and used any remaining grant funds to start an endowment fund for the new library. Construction of the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall began in October 1899 and was completed in less than two years, with the library officially opening to the public in May 1901. The ACFL&MH was added to the

in 1979, and the

on October 8, 1981. The ACFL&MH is one of only three buildings in the Chartiers Valley area to be recognized and added to the National Register. The Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall holds a unique position as one of the four Carnegie libraries that received endowments from Andrew Carnegie. Whereas most of the towns gifted with Carnegie libraries were required to adhere to the "Carnegie Formula"—an arrangement where the town agreed to subsidize their new library with public taxes—towns with endowed libraries were not required to publicly fund them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall (Carnegie, Pennsylvania) Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Libraries in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Library buildings completed in 1899 Beaux-Arts architecture in Pennsylvania Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks 1899 establishments in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania