The Akron Public Library is located on the north-east corners of East Market Street and South High Street in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Akron, Ohio, United States. Also known as the Carnegie Building, it was built in 1904 using a donation of $82,000 from U.S. industrialist Andrew Carnegie. It was designed by Akron architect
Frank O. Weary
Frank Orlando Weary (1849 – 1921) was an architect based in Akron, Ohio.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
The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, United States.
The museum first opened on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. The Institute offered clas ...
, from 1948 to 1981.
It is a monumental one-story block building, faced with "smooth-dressed coursed
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
of Ohio buff sandstone. Elements of Beaux Arts style are its colossal columns, its detailed
entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
, and parapet. Elements of French Renaissance sub-style are its mansard 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 on January 19, 1983.