Big Horn County Library

Hardin women began raising money for a library in 1909, and after numerous fundraisers a hundred-book library opened in 1912 in the home of Walter and Ella Fearis. After the city passed a mill levy in 1914, Walter Fearis wrote to library benefactor Andrew Carnegie to seek funds for a library building, arguing that farmwomen needed a place to go while their husbands conducted business and that a library could keep young men from frequenting the community’s saloons. Carnegie’s secretary first refused because the young town of Hardin did not appear on an outdated map, but Carnegie ultimately donated $15,000 on the condition that the county provide a building site and $1,500 in annual support. The county agreed, saying that a free library would be a good thing. Architect C. L. Pruett designed the Neoclassical one-and-one-half-story building in accordance with Carnegie guidelines, and although a 1987 addition expanded the library and shifted the entrance from the west to the south, the original hipped-roof structure remains visible within the building that opened with much fanfare in 1919.

Hardin, Montana · United States