The Sterling Free Public Carnegie Library is a Carnegie library located at 132 N. Broadway in Sterling,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. The library was built in 1916 through a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation and housed Sterling's library association, which formed in 1902. Architect R. W. Stookey of

George P. Washburn George Putnam Washburn (March 21, 1846 – May 16, 1922) was a prominent architect practicing in Kansas. Washburn came to Kansas in 1870, worked as a carpenter and architect, and in 1882 opened an architecture practice in Ottawa, Kansas. His son ...

& Co. designed the library in the

Jacobethan The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

style. The one-story red brick building features a cross

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

. The main entrance is in a projecting gabled pavilion; its doorway has a quoined

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

surround. The frieze over the doorway and a date tablet in the entrance's gable are also made of limestone. The 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 artistic v ...

on June 25, 1987.

References

External links

* Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kansas Library buildings completed in 1917 Buildings and structures in Rice County, Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Rice County, Kansas Jacobean architecture in the United States {{Kansas-NRHP-stub