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Goshen's Carnegie Library

Location: 202 S. Fifth Street, Goshen. (Elkhart County, Indiana)

Installed: 2003 Indiana Historical Bureau, City of Goshen, Elkhart County Historical Soc., Goshen Historical Soc., and Friends of the Goshen Public Library

ID# : 20.2003.1

Text

Side one:

Indiana's first Carnegie library opened here 1903 with 3, 000 volumes. Goshen Library Association received $25, 000 in Carnegie grants 1901. Public donations, land purchase, and tax levy met Carnegie grant conditions. Architects Patton & Miller, Chicago, designed Beaux-Arts style structure. Library moved 1968; commercial and nonprofit uses followed.

Side two:

Listed in National Register of Historic Places 1983. Renovated building reopened 2001 housing city offices. Original features of decorative marble, fireplaces, and domed rotunda retained. One of 1, 679 libraries built in U.S. with funds from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Indiana built more Carnegie libraries than any other state.

Keywords

Carnegie Library, Buildings and Architecture

Annotated Text

Indiana's first Carnegie library opened here 1903 with 3, 000 volumes.(1) Goshen Library Association received $25, 000 in Carnegie grants 1901.(2) Public donations, land purchase, and tax levy met Carnegie grant conditions.(3) Architects Patton & Miller, Chicago, designed Beaux-Arts style structure.(4) Library moved 1968; commercial and nonprofit uses followed.(5)

Listed in National Register of Historic Places 1983. Renovated building reopened 2001 housing city offices.(6) Original features of decorative marble, fireplaces, and domed rotunda retained.(7) One of 1, 679 libraries built in U.S. with funds from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Indiana built more Carnegie libraries than any other state.(8)

(1) Bobinski, Carnegie Libraries, 35; Goshen Daily News-Times, January 16, 1903.

(2) Goshen Daily News, January 26, 1900; Wood and Mummert to Secretary Franks, June 10, 1901.

(3) Wood and Mummert to Cashier [Secretary] Franks, May 11, 1901; The Goshen News, November 22, 2000; Indiana Laws, 1901, pp. 81-87; Mummert and Wood to Carnegie, December 20, 1900; Goshen Democrat, January 26, 1901; Revised Ordinances of the City of Goshen, 1925, pp. 48-50.

(4) Goshen Democrat, June 8, 1901; Grant C. Miller, Architect, pamphlet, Indiana Division, ISL; Jones, Carnegie Libraries Across America, 59, 64, 67.

(5) South Bend Tribune, May 22, 1976; The Goshen News, November 22, 2000; Polk City Directory, 1969-2000.

(6) Historic Indiana, 1999-2000, DHPA, DNR, 9; Goshen News, February 2, November 22, 2000, March 18, 2001.

(7) Goshen News, February 2, November 22, 2000, March 18, 2001; National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form; Todd Zeigner, "Storied History lives in Goshen, " Preservationist, May-June 2002, pp. 2-3; Deahl, History and Biographical Record of Elkhart County, 294.

(8) Standard marker text for Carnegie libraries.