Vincennes' Carnegie Library
Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana
Marker Inscription
Vincennes' Carnegie Library. Designed by local architect John B. Bayard in Collegiate Gothic Style; built 1917-1918. Dedicated in 1919, with 13,518 books and 4,207 registered borrows, as Vincennes Public Library; Public Library located in City Hall since 1889. Modern addition 1976-1977; became Knox County Public Library 1978 [end of side 1 of plaque]. Library has played major role in the community's educational and cultural development. Included in Vincennes Historic District, listed in National Register of Historic Places 1974. One of 1,679 libraries built in U.S. with funds from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Indiana built more Carnegie libraries than any other state. [end of side 2 of plaque]
Erected by Indiana Historical Bureau
The Story
In the early twentieth century, thousands of American towns won free library buildings from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, provided the community pledged to stock and fund them. Vincennes—Indiana's oldest town, on the Wabash—joined that wave when local architect John B. Bayard designed this Collegiate Gothic building, raised in 1917–1918 and dedicated in 1919 to house a public library that had been tucked inside City Hall since 1889. It opened with 13,518 books and more than 4,000 registered borrowers, grew with a 1970s addition, and became the Knox County Public Library in 1978.
Why it matters
Carnegie's library program helped democratize reading across small-town America, and Indiana embraced it more than any other state; this building is a well-preserved local chapter of that nationwide civic and educational movement.
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Related people
- · John B. Bayard
- · Andrew Carnegie
Themes & tags
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