Carnegie Library

213-215-217 West Fifth Avenue

Library advocate N.D. Sanders first began corresponding with famous industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie regarding funding a public library in 1906.

Carnegie offered Arkansas City a $16,000 donation for a building, which was later amended to $18,400, with the stipulation that the City would guarantee a maintenance fund.

The first library Board of Trustees was established in June 1906, after a public vote to support the library was passed that month.

Six lots were purchased at South Second Street and West Fifth Avenue, and Smith and Shenck Architectural Firm, of Fort Worth, Texas, was selected to design the building.

Construction began in 1907 and the building was dedicated on August 5, 1908. When it opened, the library originally contained 3,600 volumes in its collection.

Mrs. A.B. Ranney served as the first head librarian, keeping her position for 24 years. The position of children’s librarian was first added in September 1923, when Mrs. P.A. Miller was offered the position.

She previously served on the library board and had worked as a teacher in the local schools.

Major C.H. Searing bequeathed the library a legacy in his will, which was used to install two drinking fountains in the facility.

A small China fountain was installed in the children’s department and a brown Tennessee marble fountain was installed on the main floor in August 1931. A vibrant part of the community, the library organized Victory Book Campaigns during World War II. As the library collection grew, renovations were made to the original structure, including a new entrance in 1960 and a mezzanine in 1965.

In November 1980, the U.S. Postal Service vacated its building at 120 E. Fifth Ave. and the Arkansas City Public Library, which had simply outgrown Carnegie’s generous gift, moved into the newly available location on East Fifth Avenue, where it remains to this day.

The Carnegie building at 215 W. Fifth Ave. has remained empty ever since, although Cowley County Community College has periodically expressed an interest in it due to its proximity to the college campus.

The Carnegie Library was built in the Italian Renaissance style, with Neoclassical elements, and it features dark red brick with stone quoins at the corners, a pavilion/temple-style roof, Ionic columns, egg and dart border above dentil bands, and scrolled modillion brackets at the roof-line.