Valley City Carnegie Library
a.k.a. Valley City Public Library
413 Central Ave., Valley City, NDThe Valley City Carnegie Library was the second of three prominent libraries constructed between 1900 and 1905 from designs of Fargo Architect William C. Albrandt. In 1900 Albrandt's Mayville Public Library was constructed as the first public library building in North Dakota. The style and configuration of the Mayville Library is clearly remembered in the 1903 Valley City Carnegie Library, although the latter is somewhat heavier in posture and detail. Albrandt's third library, also a Carnegie library, was built in 1905 on the campus of North Dakota Agricultural College, and was Albrandt's finest rendition of themes and styles carried through all three library structures.
The Valley City library was one of eleven Carnegie libraries built in North Dakota, and is one of only three Carnegie libraries which remain essentially unaltered in the state. Andrew Carnegie made donations for public and academic libraries between 1898 and 1917, and he endorsed a functional building plan for the structures but left variety and detail to the individual architect. The Valley City Library conforms to the Carnegie prescriptions, except for the "wasteful" window placement. The Valley City Carnegie Library therefore stands as a lasting symbol of Gilded Age philanthropy and a continuing community dedication to the faith of that era in universal public education.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.