Fairfield Public Library

The Fairfield Public Library was built in 1914 and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 2001. It is a Carnegie Library which means it was built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Over 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929. More than half of these libraries are still standing and still in use as a library!! In the early 20th century, a Carnegie library was often the most imposing structure in hundreds of small American communities from Maine to California. Most of the library buildings were unique, displaying a number of architectural styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and Spanish Colonial. Scottish Baronial was one of the styles used in Carnegie's native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community, although as the years went by James Bertram, Carnegie's secretary, became less tolerant of designs which were not to his taste. The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase. The entry staircase symbolized a person's elevation by learning. Similarly, outside virtually every library was a lamppost or lantern to symbolize enlightenment. The first of Carnegie's public libraries opened in his hometown, Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1883. As well as Carnegie's name, the building displays a motto - "Let there be light" - and a carving of the sun over the entrance. His first library in the United States was built in 1889 in Braddock, Pennsylvania, home to one of the Carnegie Steel Company's mills. Initially, Carnegie limited his support to a small number of towns in which he had an interest. From the 1890s on, his foundation funded a dramatic increase in number of libraries.

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