Johnstown’s flood museum occupies the former Cambria Public Library, a French Gothic Revival building erected in 1890 and 1891 after the 1889 disaster destroyed the city’s original library. Funded by Andrew Carnegie and the Cambria Iron Company, it became a major cultural center with an extensive book collection, auditorium, meeting hall, government documents repository, and gymnasium. Damaged again in the 1936 flood, the building ceased serving as a library in 1971, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and opened as a museum in 1973. Its exhibits interpret the flood through artifacts, media, a relief map, and a restored survivor shelter.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania · USA