Carnegie Library

Built in 1903 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Carnegie Library in North Tonawanda, New York is a historic Carnegie library building designed and built in 1903 with funds provided by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It is in Niagara County, New York, and one of 3,000 Carnegie libraries constructed between 1885 and 1919, including 107 in New York State.”
Wikipedia article Carnegie Library (North Tonawanda, New York), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 99 National Register listings published here for Niagara County · listed in 1995 · category: Building · built in 1903, Neoclassical architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 240 Goundry St., North Tonawanda, 14120
When was it listed? July 1995
Category. building
City. North Tonawanda city
When was it built? 1903
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 95000851 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

540 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 540 fires within 5 miles of Carnegie Library between 2000 and 2020, burning about 223 acres in total. 104 started naturally. 55 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	265
Natural	104
Smoking	63
Arson/incendiarism	55
Debris and open burning	19
Equipment and vehicle use	17
Misuse of fire by a minor	6
Recreation and ceremony	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2015	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
7 September 2016	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
7 September 2007	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
4 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA
4 September 2012	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Niagara County

Storms near this property

29 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Tonawanda, the town this property stands in, in 29 storm reports between 1996 and 2021: 18 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 heavy snow, 2 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
January 1999	Heavy Snow	North Tonawanda	$100,000	no account filed
June 2002	Flash Flood	North Tonawanda	$50,000	no account filed
January 1999	Heavy Snow	North Tonawanda	$50,000	no account filed
August 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$35,000	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	North Tonawanda	$35,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$25,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$23,000	no account filed
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$20,000	Law enforcement reported a tree on a house downed by thunderstorm winds in North Tonawanda.
February 2019	Flash Flood	North Tonawanda	$20,000	no account filed
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$20,000	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	North Tonawanda	$20,000	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	North Tonawanda	$20,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$20,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$15,000	no account filed
May 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$15,000	no account filed
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$10,000	Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$10,000	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	North Tonawanda	$10,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$10,000	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	North Tonawanda	$10,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	North Tonawanda	$10,000	no account filed
August 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$9,000	no account filed
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$5,000	Numerous reports of trees and wires down were received from North Tonawanda and Wheatfield.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$5,000	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	North Tonawanda	$5,000	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$5,000	no account filed
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$2,000	Trees and powerlines were reported down.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$2,000	Trees and wires reported down.
October 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	North Tonawanda	$1,000	Trees and wires were reported down onto Gilmore Avenue.

Every storm recorded in Niagara County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1897 USGS Tonawanda quadrangle1:62500
1899 USGS Niagara quadrangle1:125000 - 6 printings
1900 USGS Tonawanda quadrangle1:62500
1901 USGS Tonawanda quadrangle1:62500 - 7 printings
1948 USGS Tonawanda quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1950 USGS Tonawanda East quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1952 USGS Toronto quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Toronto quadrangle1:250000
1965 USGS Tonawanda East quadrangle1:24000
1965 USGS Toronto quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1980 USGS Tonawanda East quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Lockport quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Sweeney Estate Historic District	0.2 miles	2020
US Post Office-North Tonawanda	0.2 miles	1989
Herschell-Spillman Motor Company Complex, The	0.2 miles	2013
Allan Herschell Carousel Factory	0.3 miles	1985
Riviera Theatre	0.4 miles	1980
Dick Block, The	0.4 miles	2012

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 95000851 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Niagara County	All 99 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.