The Akron Public Library is located on the north-east corners of East Market Street and South High Street in downtown

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Also known as the Carnegie Building, it was built in 1904 using a donation of $82,000 from U.S. industrialist

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

. It was designed by Akron architect Frank O. Weary and is an example of Beaux Arts Classicism. It served as Akron's public library from 1904 to 1942, and as an art museum from 1922 to 1932 before being converted to office space. The building is currently occupied by Brennan, Manna & Diamond, LLC. It was the first permanent home of the Akron Art Institute, from 1948 to 1981. It is a monumental one-story block building, faced with "smooth-dressed coursed ashlar of Ohio buff sandstone. Elements of Beaux Arts style are its colossal columns, its detailed entablature, and

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

. Elements of

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

sub-style are its

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

roof, the projecting front pavilion, and the "grotesque mask above the entry". It was regarded as one of Weary's best works. The building was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on January 19, 1983.

Historic uses

*Library *Museum *Office space

References

Library buildings completed in 1904 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Office buildings in Akron, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Summit County, Ohio {{SummitCountyOH-NRHP-stub