Carnegie Free Library, 301 South Pittsburgh Street, Connellsville, Fayette County, PA

Significance: Connellsville was the regional center of the world famous Connellsville coking fields that supplied the Pittsburgh steel industry during its peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Andrew Carnegie made his fortune in Pittsbyrgh steel and related Industries and held a substantial interest in the Henry Clay Frick Company, the largest coking company in the region. Carnegie's disproportionately large library donation of $50,000, later raised to $75,000, to a town with an official population of 5,697 was an acknowledgment of the region's contribution to his financial empire. Community leaders' desire to have a public library reflected their progressive aspirations for the burgeoning town. They chose an "Italian Renaissance" design for the building, completed in 1903. It still serves Connellsville as the Carnegie Free Library and is virtually unaltered.
Survey number: HABS PA-5476
Building/structure dates: 1901- 1903 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1912 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1915 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1967-1968 Subsequent Work