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History Center in the Carnegie Building?

Across the U.S., historic Carnegie library buildings have found new life as history museums. In California alone, 22 Carnegie libraries are now history museums, preserving and sharing the stories of their communities. So, why not St. Helena’s own Carnegie library?

At a January meeting of the St. Helena City Council, Susanne Salvestrin, vice president of the Society, made an appeal to the council to consider allowing us to use the Carnegie Building as a temporary History Center.

While we look forward someday to having a permanent History Center, we are running out of room in our borrowed space at the library. We need a place where we can have space for exhibits, educational programs, staff and storage; a place where students and community members, families and visitors can have access to and experience with our collection. We need a place where we can launch a capital campaign to fund our future permanent home. The Carnegie Building has the potential to be our temporary home. To see the possibilities, please take a look at these drawings:  Carniege-Floor Plan-Collections-Exhibits, Carnegie-Floor Plan-Upstairs.