Harvard's 1915 Carnegie Library

Andrew Carnegie's library grants came with conditions, and nearly all of his libraries followed what became known as the Carnegie formula. To get a building, a town had to show that it needed a public library, provide the site, put up ten percent of the construction cost every year to run it, and give free service to all. Requests from towns were fielded by James Bertram, whom Carnegie had hired as his personal assistant. Carnegie kept funding new libraries until shortly before his death in 1919.

What the plaque says

Harvard's 1915 Carnegie Library Harvard's first library in 1885 was a traveling one established in Church's Drugstore, and moved to other buildings until Mayor George H. Thomas appointed a committee in 1914 to contact the Carnegie Foundation. Citizens pledged $3,175.25 and Carnegie gave $6,000 after approving blue- prints and the site. Constructed in 1915, the library was formally opened in February 1916. As of December 2010 the library was one of only 26 of Nebraska's 69 Carnegie libraries remaining as a library. Harvard Library Board Dr. Don R. Gerlach Nebraska State Historical Society, 2015

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer — 23 mi
  Edward Durell Stone's island pavilion in Grand Island and an 1890s railroad town of moved buildings, among them the cottage where Henry Fonda was born in 1905.

More markers nearby

• Midair Collision of B-17 Bombers — steps away
• Harvard Army Air Field — steps away
• Harvard Jail — steps away
• St. John's Episcopal Church - Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska — steps away