Andrew Carnegie's Gift

As library use continued to grow, it was clear that Columbus needed a new library building. The Board tapped chief librarian John Pugh to meet with industrialist Andrew Carnegie to ask for funds to build a standalone library. Carnegie typically funded rural or branch libraries. It was not clear if he would consider funding an urban library. However, when Pugh met with Carnegie in New York, they bonded over their shared experiences as sons of immigrants. Although the meeting went well, several months passed with no word from Carnegie. On December 31, 1901, Carnegie wrote to offer $150,000 for building a new library, with the condition that the library board find a suitable site and the city appropriate at least $20,000 per year for maintenance. City Council quickly passed a resolution for the maintenance fee and the board set out to find a location. Carnegie later added $50,000 to his donation in order to upgrade the exterior of the building from brick to marble.

Andrew Carnegie funded over 2,500 libraries around the world, including 103 public libraries and eight academic libraries in Ohio. He once said, “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.”

Although the original plan for the library included a brick façade, the Board asked Carnegie to fund another $50,000 for marble to make the building “an ornament to the city.”

The T. Ewing Miller property at State Street and Grant Avenue was purchased for the site of the new Carnegie library. The site was also known as Swayne Mansion and the first Governor’s Mansion. The home was built circa 1847 for attorney Noah H. Swayne. He would go on to be appointed a Supreme Court Justice by Abraham Lincoln.

Groundbreaking for the new library was held on Oct. 12, 1903. It took nearly four years to build.

Librarian John Pugh (left) and Wilbur T. Mills, supervising architect for the new library.