The library began as a one-room library in the Patrick and Bray building on the downtown square sponsored by the Enid Study Club in late 1900.[1] In 1905, the city of Enid acquired the library. In May 1909 Enid received a $25,000 grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation to build a Carnegie library.[2][3] The Enid Carnegie Library was a Mission Revival style building designed by A. A. Crowell and built by DC Bass and Sons Construction.[4] The Enid Library merged with the Garfield County Library in 1960.[5] By the late 1950s the library system had outgrown the Carnegie library, storing 60,000 books in a facility that was built to hold 20,000 books,[6] and the building itself was falling into desrepair as the oldest government building in the city.[7] It was located at 402 N. Independence,[6] and was in operation from October 8, 1910[2] until October 18, 1964, when a new mid-century modern style building was opened at 120 W. Maine, the library's current location.[8] Following years of vacancy, the Carnegie library was demolished in 1972, and is now a vacant lot.[9] In 2010, the library underwent renovations modeled after the San Jose Public Library System.[10] The library building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The Enid and Garfield Library made national headlines in 2022 when the library board enacted a policy that banned displays about gender and sexuality, and as result meetings of a local romance book club.[11]
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402 N. Independence, former location of Enid's Carnegie Library.
