The Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny is situated in the Allegheny Center neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was commissioned in 1886, the first Carnegie library to be commissioned in the United States. Donated to the public by entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie, it was built from 1886 to 1890 on a design by

John L. Smithmeyer John L. Smithmeyer (1832–1908) was an American architect. Biography He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1832 and came to the U.S. in 1848. He studied architecture in Chicago and began an architectural practice in Indianapolis. After serving in t ...

and

Paul J. Pelz Paul Johannes Pelz (18 November 1841 – 30 March 1918) was a German-American architect, best known as the main architect of the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Life and career Paul J. Pelz was born November 18, 1841, in Seitendorf (now ...

. The library and musical conservatory was built of red and grey granite from Maine. The contractor was Vinalhaven, Maine's Bodwell Granite Company, which had furnished granite for major public works including the State, War and Navy Department building in Washington, DC., now called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It did not open until 1890 thus making it the second Carnegie library to open. The first one to open being the Carnegie Free Library of Braddock, built for steel-workers in

Braddock Braddock may refer to: Places England, United Kingdom * Braddock, Cornwall ** Battle of Braddock Down, 1643 Canada * Braddock, Saskatchewan * Braddock Lake, Saskatchewan; a reservoir United States * Braddock, New Jersey * Braddock, North Dako ...

, 9 miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. The building also features the first Carnegie Music Hall in the United States. The Music Hall at the Braddock Library would not open until an 1893 expansion of that structure. The running costs were met from local taxes – unlike the Carnegie Library in Braddock, which received an endowment from Carnegie. After a mid-2000s lightning strike, the library was moved to a new building a few blocks north on Federal Street. Following the move, the

New Hazlett Theater The New Hazlett Theater is the primary occupant of the Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny in the Allegheny Center part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the Pittsburgh Public Theater moved to the O'Reilly Theater in 1999, the Hazlett Theater was ...

was the primary tenant. In April 2019, the

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is a hands-on interactive children's museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is in the Allegheny Center neighborhood in Pittsburgh's Northside. History The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh was founded in 1983 i ...

opened Museum Lab, a makerspace for youth aged 10+. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Gallery

File:Carnegie Library Allegheny ReadingRoom 1900.jpg, Reading Room, ca. 1900 File:Carnegie Library Allegheny 1900.jpg, Women's Reading Room, ca. 1900 File:Carnegie Library Allegheny.jpg, Library entrance File:Carnegie Hall Allegheny.jpg, Carnegie Hall entrance (now New Hazlett Theater) File:Anderson Monument Allegheny 2013.jpg, Monument to Colonel James Anderson, who inspired Carnegie to donate free libraries

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Library buildings completed in 1889 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Carnegie libraries in Pennsylvania Clock towers in Pennsylvania Romanesque Revival architecture in Pennsylvania Libraries in Pittsburgh Libraries in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania City of Pittsburgh historic designations Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Pittsburgh 1889 establishments in Pennsylvania