While in Iron Mountain on business during 1901, Andrew Carnegie recognized the need for a library on the Menominee Iron Range, then a prospering area, and donated $15,000 for this building. Designed by James E. Clancy in the Neo-Classical Revival style, it was one of the earliest Carnegie libraries in the Great Lake State. After serving the community for over seventy years, the building became the Menominee Range Museum in 1971, featuring the history of its namesake.