Ohio Historic Marker
The Paulding County Carnegie Library was awarded an Ohio Bicentennial Historic Marker honoring the significance of the library being the first "county" library in the United States funded by Andrew Carnegie.  Click here for details.

History of Paulding County Carnegie Library

[Click here to view historic photos of library activities]

  
[The Latty House c. 1900. From the PCCL Digital Collection.] 

[The library under construction, winter 1914-1915. Photo courtesy of Kim Sutton. From the PCCL Digital Collection] 
               

In 1893, the Ladies Literary Society of Paulding assessed themselves $2.00 each to start a  circulating library. Standard books were purchased and kept at the residence of the librarian,  Mrs. Wm J. Wheeler. Books were offered to the public upon payment of 5 cents per volume  per week. With this money more books were purchased. The library was in various places,  in homes, above downtown stores and in a Main Street store front.

In 1903, the Federation of Literary Societies of Paulding met to enlist the public in obtaining a public library. From this meeting the Public Library Association was organized with 600 books on the shelves.

In 1913, Rebecca S. Latty, widow of Alexander Sankey Latty donated 4 lots on South Main Street and an extended piece of land that stretched to the center of Flat Rock Creek, including the section  called "Old Tail Race." 

In the same year, through the efforts of Mr. C. H. Allen of Paulding, Mr. Andrew Carnegie gave  $40, 000 to build a library. This was the first county library that Carnegie gave money to have built.  The new library was open for business on March 3, 1916 with 4000 books and renamed the  Paulding County Carnegie Library.
   
The building was constructed of fireproof and slow burning materials, French gray pressed  brick and Indian Bedford stone with a green tile roof. Architects were Howard and Merriam  of Columbus, Ohio. These architects also designed the Hayes Presidential Library in Fremont, Ohio.  

The library was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1985.  In 2003 the library received an Ohio Bicentennial Historical marker in recognition of it being the first county library funded by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. 

The first librarian in 1916 was Miss Elle Louise Smith. Ms. Susan N. Hill has been the director since 1997.  In 2007, the Paulding County Carnegie Library and the three branch libraries (Antwerp, Payne, and Oakwood) has 20 paid employees.