A Carnegie in Portland

As longtime readers know, we admire the accomplishments of the foundation Andrew Carnegie established to fund public libraries, and seek them out where we travel. Greater Portland, Oregon has six extant Carnegie Library structures, two of which are still part of the Multnomah County Library system, according to this list. Another, formerly the Albina Library, is — in a neat twist — now the Title Wave Used Bookstore.

On our most recent trip to Portland, we visited one, formerly the East Portland Carnegie Library, 1911, at 1110 SE Alder St., now converted to offices. Here’s the exterior in July, 2014.

Here’s how it looked in the day (my photograph of a print displayed inside the building).

There’s little of the original interior remaining, although most of the exterior is intact. If you’re interested in seeing the historic interiors, you may want to investigate one or more of the other Carnegie Library buildings which retain more of their original character inside.

Any Portlandians out there still using your local Carnegie? We’d love to hear from you.

This post is part of a series about traveling in Oregon. CLICK HERE to see the first. Use the navigation below to see earlier or later posts.

© Brad Nixon 2015, 2016