At the 1898 request of a firm mining coal in Pittsburg, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave $5,000 to match local pledges and build the first Carnegie Library in Texas, one of 31 in the state, on this site. The masonry building also served as the opera house and city hall. The library had 3,000 books and became a social center, with meeting rooms for clubs and groups such as ladies sewing for World War I hospitals. The opera house staged professional drama and lectures and was used for graduations and recitals until a modern school was built in 1926. The library burned in 1939.