Elkhart Carnegie Public Library

Backed in February 1901 by the Elkhart City Council’s promise of property and ongoing financial support, Elkhart businessmen A.H. Beardsley and G.B. Pratt, Sr. secured a promise of $30,000 from Andrew Carnegie to build Elkhart’s first public library, and Carnegie later increased his support by $5,000. Contractor W.H. Maxwell of Angola, Ind. began work in September 1901, and the buildings and grounds eventually cost $37,000. When the Elkhart Public Library opened in 1903, it held more than 7,000 books acquired by donation from school, church, and private libraries. In its first year, librarians circulated 58,080 titles to 3,393 registered borrowers, about one-fifth of the city’s 17,000 residents. By 1961, growth and the inability to expand the existing building led to construction of a new Elkhart Public Library at the southeast corner of Second and High Streets, and the Carnegie building then served as classroom space for Elkhart High School until its demolition in 1970.

Elkhart, Indiana · United States