Narrator: Around the turn of the last century, libraries were built in towns of all sizes throughout the United States, using funds provided by millionaire Andrew Carnegie. Many of these buildings are still in use today, not only across the country but across Kansas as well.

Roy Bird: We're in the Carnegie room of the original Stockton Public Library. This was the original portion of the library. The upstairs of course was the library portion, lower part was used for other purposes for many years. The facility was requested in May of 1909 and it was dedicated in January, 1911 here in Stockton. It was a community effort with a grant of $5,000 from the Carnegie's library program. They had about 1,400 square feet here and they used that as the public library for the community of Stockton, which served around 1,800 persons from 1911 until the new edition was opened in 1984.

Narrator: In his position at the State Library in Topeka, Roy has been called in to libraries across the state as a consultant.

Roy: During the last 12 or 13 years I've been at the state libraries' federal project coordinator and until 1997 we had federal funds for public library construction. We consult to a large extent with the Carnegie libraries as we do with all the public libraries in the state. And um, its fascinating to watch how the Carnegie's have developed and to see the importance in a community that a Carnegie library has because in a town such as Stockton, you see, three generations have viewed this building as the public library and this is where they came to acquire their information, their education, their culture, their recreation, this is a part of the communities heritage and its difficult to give that up.

Narrator: Neola Breckenridge is the current librarian of the Stockton Library.

Neola: They tried to keep the old Carnegie up as much as they could, the money they did have they tried to improve, which was a blessing because a lot of the old Carnegies are gone, but our former board members did see this and that was very good to be able to do that.

Narrator:Stockton, like many communities, had outgrown its facility and expansion was needed. And the task was at hand to integrate the new with the old.

Neola: When they first started, an architect, that was one thing they looked for and they had a lot of different drawings and some of them looked like two buildings just slammed together, then we had the Keller from Hill City and in his picture we could see that it was what we really wanted. And we had the old tile on the old library and we wanted the new tile on this one and they found a school house in Osborne county, an old schoolhouse that was not being used anymore and they took, bought the tile from so we was able match the tile.

Narrator:At the turn of the last century, Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest men in the world. The foundation of his success and philanthropy was built on his humble childhood.

Roy: Andrew Carnegie was an immigrant to the United States from Scotland. His father was a craftsman in Scotland, who was displaced thanks to the industrial revolution. So he brought the family over. They moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and eventually his father got a job in a factory in Pittsburgh and Andrew went to work as a young man, as a very young man, as a bobbin boy in that same factory. He attributed much of his education to a gentleman in Pittsburgh who opened his library to some young men. Carnegie was the most active using that collection. And the use of that helped him, and made him aware of the importance of education.

Roy: When you visit them, when you visit the old Carnegie libraries, you'll see, they reflect a certain masculine era. They were made as a gentleman's reading rooms. Some of the libraries are not as exemplary of that as others, but Council Grove's is an excellent example, where it has fireplaces, both on the main floor and the second floor, with much beautiful woodwork, wainscoting and you can almost picture gentleman of Carnegie's age leaning on the fireplace, leaning against the mantle, in smoking jackets, reading, aloud.

Roy: A community in Kansas, in order to get those Carnegie libraries, had to provide two things. It was relatively easy. A community had to provide a site for the building, and this was for a brand new building, and it had to provide future funding.

Narrator: Carnegie's gifts were questioned by Kansans who didn't agree with labor practices in his Eastern steel mills.

Roy: There were problems in some communities in accepting Carnegie's money. At least two apparently turned down the money. Frankfort never built a Carnegie library they turned it down. Atchison apparently turned the first grant down, because the money was "tainted". In most communities which requested these funds from Mr. Carnegie, the people were very appreciative. Mark Twain said that Mr. Carnegie went out and consciously bought fame. And paid for it in cash. Twain obviously thought that Carnegie was doing this to create a legacy for himself. Well he certainly did that. And the legacy is still with us. At this time we have 59 Carnegie libraries built in Kansas. We have a handful that have been razed, 22 are being used for other purposes, but they' re still in the communities and about 40 of them are now on the National register across the state.