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Former Carnegie Library to Become Atlanta City Hall in Hamilton County – Inside INdiana Business

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Atlanta’s Carnegie Library, opened in 1916, will become the community’s city hall in 2025. (IBJ Photo/Daniel Bradley)

The 108-year-old Carnegie Library in the northern Hamilton County city of Atlanta will get a new lease on life next year when the building reopens as the community’s city hall.

The neoclassical-style building at 100 S. Walnut St. was the northern branch of the Hamilton North Public Library before it closed last year due to reduced usage and budget constraints. The Hamilton North Public Library now operates a branch in Cicero.

The building will require about $150,000 in renovations to transform it into Atlanta’s new city hall, but city employees are expected to begin moving into the building early next year.

“When the library closed, we knew we had to move quickly because other people were interested in the building,” said Jennifer Farley, Atlanta’s treasurer.

Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of 1,689 libraries in the United States between 1901 and 1922. The 4,100-square-foot Carnegie Library in Atlanta, which opened in 1916, was one of 164 public libraries in Indiana built with funding from the Carnegie Corp. of New York.

Four years after the library opened in 1920, Atlanta had a population of 678, more than Carmel (598), Fishers (142) and Westfield (574), according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The city had a population of 712 as of the 2020 census.

The Atlanta building was one of five Carnegie libraries built in Hamilton County. The former Carmel library building is now Woody’s Library Restaurant, while the Noblesville building is part of City Hall. Sheridan is an office for United Animal Health Inc. and Westfield are home to Cave & Co. Printing Inc.

Mark Dollase, vice president of preservation services for the Indianapolis-based company Indiana Landmarks noted that Indiana received more library grants through the Carnegie program than any other state.

“Libraries are a touchstone of the importance of education in the community and for many people throughout their lives,” Dollase said. “I think Andrew Carnegie understood that, and that’s why he devoted most of his fortune to funding the libraries that were built at that time in communities all across the country.”

Farley said city leaders wanted to buy the library building after it closed so it would retain community use rather than become private property.

“It’s very important to our community to preserve this building because of its history, and it’s a very beautiful building,” Farley said. “There’s a lot of history here for a lot of people in town, and we just wanted to preserve it.”

The building features a brick exterior with a Spanish-style clay tile roof, while the interior features wood paneling along the ceiling and doors and a circulation desk that will remain in place.

“When it was a library, you would go in and look at the books,” Farley said. “But now, because it’s empty, all you see is the beautiful woodwork and how impressive the building is. So we’re really excited to make it a part of our community.”

When the Atlanta library closed last year, Farley reached out to Dollase, who helped the city secure a $200,000 loan from Indiana Landmarks’ Endangered Places program to purchase the building from the Hamilton North Public Library. The loan, which the city repaid in three months, included clauses ensuring the building’s architectural character would be protected.

“Often, like many other people, we find out about these things in the media when the building is vacated or put up for sale, and it certainly raises a red flag about the future of that property,” Dollase said.

The city is working with Still Architecture + Design, an Indianapolis-based firm, to repurpose the building so it can once again serve as city hall. In addition to offices for city leaders and Atlanta Utilities employees, the building will include a meeting room for city council meetings and computers in the basement for residents.

“It’s great to have a Carnegie library in our community. The library was a big part of our community,” Farley said. “Once we can move in and completely renovate it, I think it’s going to be great for our community.”

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