Today the building at 314 N. Jeffers rings with the squeals of children at play in the North Platte Area Children's Museum.

However, silence was the rule in the early years when the building was the Carnegie Library.

Sara Aden, assistant library director, has researched the early beginnings of the Carnegie Library. Surprisingly thorough records were kept and remain as a testament to the foresight of those who saw the value of a library in the growing community of North Platte.

The first mention of a Carnegie library is in a letter dated 1904 from William H. McDonald to the Cheyenne, Wyo., librarian asking how to apply for funds from the Carnegie Foundation.

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He moved with his family to the United States in 1848.

In time, through hard work and shrewd business sense, Carnegie's fortune was estimated to be more than $480 million, making him perhaps the richest man in the world at the time.

Carnegie's greatest interest in life was the establishment of free public libraries so self-education could be available to everyone.

Appropriately, the first library Carnegie founded was in his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland, on July 27, 1881. In all, Carnegie may have built nearly 2,800 free libraries, with more than 1,900 of these in the United States.

The North Platte Library received $12,000 from Carnegie to build the first public library. There were two strings attached to the gift. First, the community had to provide 10 percent of the gift annually for upkeep and operation costs, and second, the city must provide a suitable site for the building.

The new library had its grand opening the evening of Tuesday, April 2, 1912, Aden said. That first evening 95 members registered with the library and 83 books were loaned.

At that time, Jeffers Street was named Locust Street. Aden said there is a sign showing the library on Locust Street was open from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The library was also open evenings and on Saturday.

The original library building was only about two-thirds the size it is today, Aden said.

"A 24-by-50-foot addition was built in the early 1940s," she said. "This addition included the library's first restroom."

One can see on the south side where the original brick and the bricks of the west addition don't quite match, she added.

The first librarian elected by the library board was Mrs. J.A. Jones and N.F. Clough was the first janitor. The janitor's contract paid $10 per month in the winter and $5 per month during the summer.
The early minutes of the library board do not indicate the librarian's salary although Aden suspects it could have been around $50 per month.

While Carnegie libraries are usually ornate, with large pillars and are highly decorated, Aden thinks perhaps the timing of the gift was why the Carnegie Library in North Platte is a rather plain building.
"The money came toward the end of the Carnegie library-building era and I think that may be why only $12,000 was received," she said.

Now, nearly 100 years later, the building still serves its community well, continuing to provide a place for children and learning.