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Dedicated 7 January 1904 — razed August 1965
The gift: In 1901 the Woman's Club League approached Andrew Carnegie. As the story was told at the time, Carnegie was prepared to give 250,000 dollars but required the city to spend ten percent of the gift each year on the library's support; the committee asked him to limit the gift to 75,000 dollars — then the largest single Carnegie library gift in Indiana — and he later added 15,000 dollars, for 90,000 dollars in all. A 1935 News-Sentinel article put the Carnegie gift at 150,000 dollars; the centennial history prints the 90,000-dollar account and notes the discrepancy itself.
The building: Fort Wayne architect Alfred Grindle designed it in the Grecian style, in buff Bedford limestone, 102 by 118 feet; William Geake and Sons built it. The total cost was 110,700 dollars, and it opened free of debt.
Dedication: The building was dedicated on 7 January 1904: Charles S. Bash presented it, Mayor Henry C. Berghoff accepted it for the city, and the speakers included Judge Robert S. Taylor and Merica Hoagland; Carnegie's letter was read in his absence. The library's own social-media history posts have given both 7 January and 7 June 1904 as the dedication date; the centennial history's full account of the ceremony supports 7 January. The library moved in with 17,510 volumes and a staff of five, open twelve hours a day, six days a week, with a Sunday reading room from 2 to 5 p.m.
Sources:
- Slater-Putt, Beyond Books (1995), ch. 2 — the Carnegie negotiation, the cost, the dedication and the 1935 figure in conflict.
- Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, libraries page — Grindle as architect and the 90,000-dollar gift.
- ACPL Facilities Master Plan, 7 April 2022, Main Library profile — the building's total cost rounded to 110,000 dollars.