Carnegie Library, 500 National Avenue, Las Vegas

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS NM-210. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

500 National Avenue, Las Vegas, San Miguel County, New Mexico. The Carnegie Library is located within the Library Park Historic District and is included as a contributing structure in the "Historic Resources of Las Vegas, New Mexico" inventory for the National Register of Historic Places

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS NM-210. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The library was funded by a grant from Andrew Carnegie, and was one of the libraries constructed between and through Carnegie's program. Carnegie devoted some forty million dollars to his library project. Las Vegas's library was designed by the firm Rapp and Rapp, and built in The building itself recalls Monticello with its dome resting on an octagonal drum, recessed portico entry, arched windows with sandstone details, and brick masonry work. Its neoclassicism is in keeping with the buildings facing the library park and in its immediate neighborhood. History: Andrew Carnegie the immigrant is less remembered than Andrew Carnegie the steel industry magnate and philanthropist.

Carnegie could fund his philanthropy with profits from the sale of the Carnegie Steel Company in yet the direction those efforts took came out of his own experience as a poor immigrant. He was self-taught, and was said to attribute his later success to what he learned from the books in a private library. Most libraries in the late nineteenth century were private collections or subscription; neither was an affordable option for many Americans. Carnegie promoted equal access to knowledge, thus to opportunity, through his libraries. Local communities could apply for grant funds to construct the libraries, but they had to match the grant by supplying a location and a percentage of the funds.

Las Vegas received from Carnegie; the building site - a square shaped park - had been set aside as early as Between and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and from to the Reading Room Association pressed for the library. Las Vegas's library is the result of their efforts and Carnegie's largesse. It was one of just a few Carnegie libraries in the state of New Mexico, and one of just a few of the libraries funded by Carnegie nationwide that still serve as libraries today. Catherine C. Lavoie, "Central Library," Historic American Buildings Survey; Abigail Van Free to All: Carnegie Libraries and American Culture, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2 Ibid. Information taken from the New Mexico State files and the National Register nominations. CARNEGIE LIBRARY HABSNo. (page 2)

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS NM-210. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

"Carnegie Library," Historic Las Vegas, New Mexico: Along the Santa Fe Trail. Las Vegas: Citizens' Committee for Historic Preservation, Diana G. Stein, "Las Vegas Carnegie Public Library and Library Park," New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties, Ellen Threinen, "Library Park Historic District," Nomination, National Register of Historic Places, Chris Wilson, "Nuestra Senora de Los Dolores de Las Vegas (City of Los Vegas)," Nomination, National Register of Historic Places,