The Carnegie Library is a historic building on the

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

campus in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid in 1908 by

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, who was then the

U.S. Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the C ...

. It was funded by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, who provided a number of academic libraries, as well as many public Carnegie libraries. The library was designed by

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

architect Moses McKissack III; it was his first major design project. It is a two-story

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

building constructed from brick with a stone columned porch, featuring an interior light well. The upper floor was intended to provide a venue for musical performances. Louis R. Harlan. ''Booker T. Washington : Volume 2: The Wizard Of Tuskegee, 1901-1915: Volume 2'' College Park It is included in the Fisk University Historic District and was independently listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1985. It now serves as the university's Academic Building.

References

External links

* * Library buildings completed in 1908 Buildings and structures in Nashville, Tennessee Carnegie libraries in Tennessee Former library buildings in the United States University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Neoclassical architecture in Tennessee University and college academic libraries in the United States Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Nashville, Tennessee 1908 establishments in Tennessee {{DavidsonCountyTN-NRHP-stub