(Click on photo to enlarge)

Text of Marker:

Paulding County Carnegie Library

In 1912, the president of the Paulding Library Association in Paulding requested funding from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to build a library in Paulding. At first the Carnegie Foundation of New York refused, stating that it only provided funding in communities with larger populations, but when the Library Association said they would serve the entire county, which had a larger population, the request was granted. As a result Paulding became the site for the first "county" Carnegie library in the United States built for a total cost of $40,000. Carnegie provided funding for 2,811 libraries, of which 1,945 were built in the United States. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, the Paulding County Carnegie Library continues to service the needs of all citizens of Paulding County.

Ohio Bicentennial Commission
The Longaberger Company
Paulding County Carnegie Library
The Ohio Historical Society
2003