Carnegie Public Library, Carnegie library in downtown Boise, United States.
Carnegie Public Library is a structure built from white brick and local sandstone with Neoclassical design elements in downtown Boise. The building features clean lines and balanced proportions typical of early 1900s civic architecture.
The structure was built between 1904 and 1905 as part of Andrew Carnegie's program to establish free libraries across America. It served Boise as the main library until operations moved to a new location in 1973.
The library opened on June 22, 1905, with Mary F. Wood as its first librarian, after the Columbian Club had run a subscription library and reading room in Boise City Hall from 1895. Since 2018 the former reading rooms have served as studio space for artists.
The building is located on West Washington Street in downtown Boise and is easy to find. Visitors should know it currently functions as private artist studio space, so access may be limited compared to a public facility.
The white brick was fired in Boise itself, and the sandstone came from Table Rock just outside the city, so the library was built almost entirely from local material. The building later housed a law firm until 2018, when it was converted into studio space for artists.
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