Spokane Carnegie Library - Spokane, WA
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 47° 39.410 W 117° 25.966
11T E 467504 N 5278250
At 10 South Cedar Street on the western edge of downtown Spokane, this was the first real public library built in Spokane.
Waymark Code: WMJGXP
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 11/17/2013
Views: 2
This is a beautiful Neo-Classical brick and stone building whose cornerstone was laid on September 12, 1904, its construction funded by both Andrew Carnegie and Spokane resident A. B. Campbell, who donated the land. It occupies one city block on the east end of a Historic District known as
Brown's Addition. Its design is the work of the Spokane architectural firm
Preusse and Zittel.
The visual highlight of the building is its entrance, which is centred within a portico supported by four two storey tall Corinthian columns made of Tenino sandstone, the same material as employed for the stone foundation. The entry leads to an interior courtyard with tile floor. Most rooms in the two storey structure, some with impressively large fireplaces, open to the courtyard or to balconies above.
The building was placed on the National Register on July 30, 1976 as a structure of primary importance within the Riverside Historic District.
The Carnegie building housed the Library until 1963, when the Comstock Library (previously the Sears building) opened for business on April 6th of that year. For a time Building No.1 of the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing, the Old Library is now a commercial building occupied by Integrus Architecture.
Carnegie Library in the early morning