In early 1910, the West Side Business Association requested that the school board build two Carnegie libraries, one “somewhere in the West End†and one in another part of the city. Although the proposal that the libraries become branches of Willard Library was not adopted, Evansville’s first two Carnegie libraries opened on West Franklin Street and in Bayard Park two years later. The building pictured here was the city’s third library funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Built at a cost of $8,350, it was located at 515 Cherry Street to serve the African American community. The library opened in late 1914 and operated until 1955, when the Buffalo Trace Council of Boy Scouts purchased the building, which was razed around 1970.
