Historic Register Tour - Carnegie Library, North Monroe Branch

HISTORIC NAME	Carnegie Library, North Monroe Branch
COMMON NAME
DATE BUILT	c. 1914
ARCHITECT/BUILDER	Albert Held
PROPERTY STYLE
ON THE SPOKANE REGISTER	Yes - added 6/23/86
ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER	No
IN A DISTRICT	Yes - added 8/3/82
DISTRICT	No
NEIGHBORHOOD	Emerson Garfield

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Carnegie Library, North Monroe Branch, was designed by noted Spokane architect Albert Held and built in 1914. In 1912 Andrew Carnegie promised $70,000 for construction of two permanent branches in Spokane. The Library Board and the City Council disagreed on where the new buildings should be located, and the compromise that emerged was that the money would be used for three branches. Of the $70,000, $17,500 was allocated for the construction of the North Monroe Branch. It served the community until 1967, when the city sold it to the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. They used it as a meeting hall, lounge and bingo parlor. The North Monroe Branch is listed on the National Register, together with three other Carnegie Libraries in Spokane, as part of a larger state-wide multiple property nomination.