Braddock Carnegie Library

Hours of Operation:

Monday: 10:00am – 5:00pm

Tuesday: 11:00am – 8:00pm

Wednesday: 11:00am – 8:00pm

Thursday: 11:00am – 8:00pm

Friday: 10:00am – 5:00pm

Saturday: 9:00am – 4:00pm

About Us:

The Braddock Carnegie Library in Braddock, Pennsylvania, is the first Carnegie Library in the United States. Designed by William Halsey Wood in eclectic medieval style, it was built in 1888 and dedicated by Andrew Carnegie on March 30, 1889. An addition in more Richardson Romanesque style by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow (successors to HH Richardson) was added in 1893. The library was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012, following its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and is on the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation’s List of Historic Landmarks.

The Carnegie Foundation provided a grant of $357,782 for its construction. Like some of the other early Carnegie libraries, the building housed various recreational facilities for its users, including billiard tables on the first floor. (Carnegie was himself fond of billiards, which was quite fashionable at the time.) A bathhouse in the basement, originally accessed by a tunnel under the front entrance, provided Carnegie’s mill workers with a place to shower (at a time when indoor plumbing was not the norm) before using the facilities. Now re-purposed as a ceramics studio, the tiled walls and floor remain, suggesting its original purpose. The 1893 addition approximately doubled the size of the building, and brought many further amenities not usually associated with a library, including a 964-seat Music Hall, a gymnasium, a swimming pool (beneath the Music Hall), and a two-lane duckpin alley. At least in the early years, the athletic/recreational facilities were available to members of the “Carnegie Club” who paid a modest quarterly fee. Employees of any Carnegie-owned company received a 50% discount, which in 1903 amounted to $1/quarter.

The Library remained in continuous use from 1889-1974, when neglect of the structure and lack of funds for repair, particularly of the roof, forced its closure. It was slated for demolition in the late 1970s when a group of residents for whom the Library had represented a very positive influence in their youth, organized to save the structure. Calling themselves the Braddock’s Field Historical Society and led by David Solomon, the last librarian, they purchased the building for $1 and took steps to secure the building and attend to the roof. (The Society’s name refers to Braddock’s Field, the colonial-era name of the area, relating to the Battle of the Monongahela fought on July 9, 1755, a few blocks