Carnegie Library of Washington D.C., Carnegie library in Mount Vernon Square, United States
The Carnegie Library of Washington D.C. occupies Mount Vernon Square as a Beaux-Arts building of light gray ashlar stone under a green copper roof. Pilasters and columns divide the facade into bays, and three tall arched windows sit above a columned entrance portico with a triangular pediment carved CARNEGIE LIBRARY. The base is rusticated stone with a stepped entry.
Banker Brainard Warner used a chance meeting with Andrew Carnegie to secure funding for Washington's first Carnegie library, designed by the New York firm Ackerman & Ross in the Beaux-Arts style and dedicated on January 7, 1903. It served as the city's central public library for almost 70 years, until overcrowding pushed the collection to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as the Central Public Library, it later housed the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. and, from 2019, an Apple Store.
The building houses the DC History Center, where visitors can explore exhibits about the capital's development and transformation. These collections show how the city and its people have changed over time.
The store occupies the ground floor, with the DC History Center on the second floor and the Carnegie Gallery in the basement. Entrances face Mount Vernon Square, and the wide stone stair with metal handrails leads to the main doors. The building is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The basement level houses the Carnegie Gallery with historical photographs and documents about the building's own past. This space brings together historical archive materials with modern retail areas, showing how the place has transformed over the decades.
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