Built in 1914, this local public library building grew out of a national movement encouraged by the philanthropy of iron and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. In 1911, the Auburn Library Board received $9,000 from the Carnegie Foundation to construct the building on property donated for that purpose by the Arthur Ballard family. The two-story brick building was designed by Seattle architect David Myers and reflects restrained Neoclassical design and the simple rectangular massing of similar Carnegie libraries built across the nation during that era. Since 1964, when a new local library was constructed, it has been preserved in private ownership.