Ballard Carnegie Library
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Ballard Carnegie Library
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Ballard Carnegie Library, circa 1911.
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| Location | 2026 NW Market Street Ballard, Seattle, Washington |
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| Nearest city | Seattle, Washington |
| Coordinates | 47°40′8″N 122°23′0″W / 47.66889°N 122.38333°WCoordinates: 47°40′8″N 122°23′0″W / 47.66889°N 122.38333°W |
| Built | 1904 |
| Architect | Henderson Ryan |
| MPS | Carnegie Libraries of Washington TR (AD) |
| NRHP Reference # | 79002535 |
| Added to NRHP | June 15, 1979 |
The Ballard Carnegie Library, also known until 1963 as the Seattle Public Library – Ballard Branch, is a historic library in the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. The library was predated by a freeholders' library in the 1860s, which eventually gave way to a reading room that was organized and funded by a women's' group in 1901. With a grant for $15,000, among other funds, a new library for the then independent City of Ballard was created as a Carnegie library. The building, located at 2026 N.W. Market Street in downtown Ballard, opened to the public on June 24, 1904. Notable as the first major branch of the Seattle public library system, after Seattle annexed the City of Ballard into itself in 1907, and for employing one of the first African American librarians in Seattle, the Ballard Carnegie Library was in service until 1963, when a newer and more modern facility replaced it. After its sale, the old library building housed a variety of private commercial enterprises, including an antique shop, a restaurant and a kilt manufacturer.
After being nominated in 1976 for the recognition by Seattle architect Larry E. Johnson, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1979 (ID #79002535).
In the late 1860s, when Ballard was a new settlement along the edge of Salmon Bay, a homesteader named Ira Wilcox Utter helped create a freeholders' library. Later, in 1901, the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Ballard began raising money with fairs and socials for a new reading room on Ballard Avenue; it moved and expanded several times to different locations. Having decided to build a proper library, the Ballard City Council established a library board in 1903 and the city applied to the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for a library grant to help underwrite the costs of construction of a new library. The library was built on a lot of 100 feet (30.5 m) square, which was purchased for $2,100 raised by local businesses and citizens, supported by the earlier fundraising and book collections of the women's union, and a $15,000 grant from Carnegie. When construction was completed, the building included features such as a 500-seat auditorium and a men's smoking room, which was later converted into a reading room. Part of the construction work was executed by a chain gang.
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