King County Landmarks: Carnegie Public Library (1914), Auburn

  • By Heather MacIntosh
  • Posted 1/01/2000
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 2395
See Additional Media

Address: 306 Auburn Avenue NE, Auburn. The development of a public library in Auburn was part of a national movement spurred by the philanthropy of iron and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). In 1911, the Auburn Library Board received $9,000 from the Carnegie Foundation to construct a building on property donated by the Ballard family.

The Carnegie Public Library was designed by Seattle architect David Myers and built in 1914. The two-story brick building reflects the restrained Neoclassical design and simple rectangular massing of Carnegie libraries built in the early 1900s throughout the country. The building currently houses a dance studio.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You