In 1982 the Burlington Carnegie Library achieved recognition for its historic contributions by being listed on the National Park Services National Historic Register.The Burlington Carnegie Library served the community for over 50 years until a larger library was built in across the street in the 1970s.
The Burlington Carnegie Library faded from its community service due to the building’s access not being ADA compliant. The expense to bring this building, which is in good physical condition, up to 21st century codes and compliance is too large for our small rural town’s budget. Sadly, this historic gem remains empty and unused at the present time.
In 2016 the City of Burlington celebrated the 100th anniversary of Andrew Carnegie’s gift to their city. One of the highlights of this celebration was the removal of the Burlington Carnegie Library’s cornerstone to reveal a hidden time capsule. At a public event at the new Burlington Public Library, the time capsule was opened to reveal perfectly preserved documents from 1916, the year Burlington’s first public library was completed. The public’s delight and enthusiasm demonstrated the deep affection of all who knew the Carnegie Library as their go-to source for information and education. At this event stories and memories of our Carnegie Library were told. We shared heartwarming and impactful stories of lives changed, thanks to Andrew Carnegie’s gift of $5,000 in 1916 to our small town.
The Burlington Historical Society, a 501 c 3nonprofit, hopes to partner with the city of Burlington to recall to public service this historic building as the Carnegie Center for History. The Carnegie Library would share the story of Burlington’s local agricultural history for future generations.
Thank you to Mr. Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Corporation for your vision for all Americans by providing opportunities to improve our lives.
In 2016 the city of Burlington celebrated the centennial of its Carnegie Library. The Burlington Carnegie Library, located in Skagit County, Washington, was completed in June 1916. The cornerstone states “A Gift of Andrew Carnegie 1916.” In planning for the centennial, it was discovered that it was a standard practice for these historic buildings to have encased in the building’s cornerstone a time capsule. This intrigued the city of Burlington’s historic preservation commission. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to remove the time capsule and have a public reveal of the contents at the centennial celebration. A local building contractor volunteered to carefully remove the cornerstone. It was still a surprise to actually see the time capsule buried within the cornerstone.
The cornerstone and time capsule opening were the highlights of the centennial celebration. To the amazement and delight of the attendees. Inside the time capsule was found perfectly preserved city documents from June 1916 the date of the Carnegie Library’s opening to its long service to the community.
The 2016-time capsule was filled by the Burlington Public Library staff with records of the present city council and other items suggested by the community – including a drone fly-over video of Burlington created by a 6th grade Burlington student. We look forward to the opening of this time capsule in 2116.
In 2016the city of Burlington held a celebration of the Burlington Carnegie Library ‘s centennial. The guest speaker was Darlene Maloy, a former librarian who worked in that library for most of her career. A time capsule from the building’s cornerstone was extracted and opened up for the first time in 100 years to the delight and amazement of the audience. A microphone was passed around the audience. Many people shared affectionate memories of working or visiting that library over the years. From their comments a movement was born – to preserve the Carnegie Library and recall it to public life again. This historic building has not been open to the public for many years as it is not ADA accessible due to its inside and entrance stairs. It is a long-held dream of the Burlington Historical Society and the Burlington Historic Preservation Commission to someday fine the funding to fulfill this dream of the Burlington Carnegie Library (which is on the National Historic Register) once again being open to the public with an elevator that meets ADA requirements.
In 2022, the city of Burlington with the help of grants and donations from the community was able to replace the severely weather damaged front entrance doors to the Burlington Carnegie Library, 901 E Fairhaven Ave. Burlington, WA 98233. This was not an easy task as this project began in 2020 and the Covid-10 pandemic closed the city of Burlington for many months. But a small group of senior citizens kept the project going through those dark and uncertain times. The local chapter of the DAR as well as the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America were deeply committed to seeing this project to its successful end. In June 2022 the authentic replicas of the original 1916 entrance doors were installed to the delight of the Burlington community.
To add to the afternoon, two special guests made their appearance. Clara Garl-Morrison, Burlington’s first schoolteacher emcee’d the recognition program and introduced a surprise guest, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who briefly addressed the delighted audience. Living history character portrayals are a highly engaging and effective way to share history. The unexpected arrival of these two historic figures for this event indeed made it even more memorable a day for the Burlington Carnegie Library’s installation of its new, true to historic character and period front entrance doors.
