Carnegie Free Library, Classical Revival library in Eureka, California, United States

The Carnegie Free Library is a Classical Revival building of red brick and Mad River granite, designed by Eureka architects Knowles Evans and B.C. Tarver. Two-story solid redwood columns ring a colorful tile mosaic floor in the rotunda, now lit by a skylight where the original dome once stood.

Eureka was the first city to finance a public library under California's 1878 Rogers Free Library Act, initially in rented quarters. After a $20,000 Carnegie grant in 1901, trustees chose local architects Knowles Evans and B.C. Tarver. Contractor Ambrose Foster ran over budget, and a requested extra $10,000 from Carnegie was refused, so the original dome was replaced by a skylight. The building joined the National Register in 1986 and was saved from demolition in 1996.

The building has housed the Morris Graves Museum of Art since it opened on January 1, 2000, named after the Northwest School painter Morris Graves, its founding patron. The Humboldt Arts Council runs it, and the 1996 campaign that saved the library from demolition raised $1.5 million from corporations, foundations and local residents.

The museum occupies the former library at 636 F Street in Eureka, with galleries arranged around the domed rotunda and its tile mosaic floor. The building is entered from F Street; the rotunda serves as the central orientation point, with exhibition rooms opening off it. The 1999 restoration adapted the interior for museum use.

Contractor Ambrose Foster ran over budget, and the trustees failed to obtain an extra $10,000 from Carnegie. The original dome was removed, leaving only a skylight above the rotunda's tile mosaic floor.