The Calexico Carnegie Library is a
Carnegie library located at 420 Heber Ave. in
Calexico,
Imperial County, California
Imperial County is a county on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, making it the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat is El Centro. Imperial is the ...
History
The library was built in 1918 through a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation; while Calexico had initially requested a $25,000 grant, the Foundation felt that the town's size did not merit the larger amount.
The library was designed in the
Spanish Colonial Revival
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial espaƱola) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
In the ...
style and features a tile
hip roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thu ...
and a front entrance flanked by
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s and topped by a scroll. Its original design was more lavish but became simplified due to the Carnegie Foundation's reduced support for the building.
The building served as the city's library until 1986, when a new library building opened. The building was used as a storage facility until it was restored in 2007; it is now a branch of the Calexico City Library and serves as a public technology center.
The Calexico Carnegie Library was added to 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 artist ...
on September 28, 2005.
References
External links
*
Buildings and structures in Imperial County, California
Calexico, California
Library buildings completed in 1918
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Imperial County, California
1918 establishments in California
Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California
{{ImperialCountyCA-NRHP-stub