Hollister Carnegie Library, Public library building in Hollister, California.

The Hollister Carnegie Library is a one-story Type A Classical Revival building at 375 Fifth Street, set back from the street on a raised lot with a retaining wall, lawn, garden area, walkway and brick path. It has an asphalt roof, molded panels, Ionic columns, casement windows and bracketed sills, with a basement and a rear expansion added in 1986. It now serves as Hollister City Hall.

The city's public library, founded in 1884, passed through the Hollister Library Association, the Mechanics Library Association and a Woman's Christian Temperance Union reading room. A $10,000 Carnegie grant in 1910 funded the new building at 375 Fifth Street, begun in 1911 to William Binder's design with E. J. Sparling as contractor. In 1960 the library merged with the San Benito County library and moved to 470 Fifth Street, and the Carnegie building became City Hall. It was listed on the National Register on March 26, 1992.

The library's lineage began with a public library founded in 1884, which passed through the Hollister Library Association, the Mechanics Library Association and a Woman's Christian Temperance Union reading room before the Carnegie building opened. The Mechanics association and the temperance reading room show the groups that kept books available in town.

The building sits in central Hollister at an easy-to-find location between two main streets. Visitors should note that it now serves as City Hall and is not publicly accessible as a library.

The building's concrete construction was specifically designed to resist earthquakes in this seismically active region. This engineering choice reflects how builders adapted the design to address local hazards.