Andrew Carnegie/Carnegie Library of Steubenville - Steubenville, Ohio
Posted by: BruceS
N 40° 21.309 W 080° 37.081
17T E 532436 N 4467246
Marker giving history of steel businessman, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and the local library he funded the construction of in Steubenville, Ohio.
Waymark Code: WMK42W
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2014
Views: 6
Text of marker:
Andrew Carnegie
(1835 - 1919)
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dumfermline, Scotland. He immigrated to Allegheny City Pennsylvania with his family when he was 13. While operating the telegraphs for the Pennsylvania Railroad, Carnegie perceived the great need for steel in the railroad industry. With this insight, he founded the Carnegie Steel Corporation which for 35 years before he sold it to J.P. Morgan in 1901. Andrew Carnegie wrote the article, "Wealth" in 1889 in which he said that a responsible person of wealth should help his fellow man. Carnegie's philanthropy provided 2,509 libraries throughout the world. Carnegie was already familiar with the city when he wrote a letter to offer funds to build the Steubenville library June 30, 1899.
Carnegie Library Of Steubenville
As a young man, Carnegie was sent to a Steubenville telegraph office when a flood destroyed the wires between Steubenville and Wheeling. As part of his offer to build the library, Carnegie stipulated that the city's citizens would have to provide the site and money to maintain the library. The library was one of the first funded by Carnegie in Ohio and opened on March 12, 1902. Designed by the Pittsburgh architectural firm of Alden & Harlow, the Richardsonian Romanesque building shares its style with a smaller Oakmont Pennsylvania library. Both libraries were designed using features of the 1888 Cambridge Massachusetts city hall. The diagonal brick patterns on the ends of the structure are unique to this building. This library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Public Library Of Steubenville & Jefferson County Trust Fund
2012 The Ohio Historical Society 10-41