Located at 1 Lagrange Street, the Carnegie Library is a historic icon in the downtown historic district of Newnan. The Newnan Carnegie Library sports the blue sign above the building that says “Newnan The City of Homes,” which lights up the evening. This building has been a landmark in Newnan for over a century and has had a long history of its community outreach in the city. In 1883, the First Library Association was formed here and was the original building at 1 Lagrange Street. This library was not a public library, as you had to pay a few dollars yearly for a membership. Charles L. Thompson saw the need for a public library in the community, so he wrote to Andrew Carnegie about funding a library in Newnan. Andrew Carnegie was a leading industrialist and philanthropist at the time, as the steel industry made him one of the richest men in American history. Andrew Carnegie, in 1901, provided a grant of $10,000 for the construction of the library. This grant was one of the first Carnegie Library grants in the state of Georgia, and this library would be the first public library in Newnan. In 1904, the library would officially open to the public, with the main floor hosting reading rooms and a second floor having meeting spaces. By 1905, Carnegie Library had approximately 1,800 volumes and over 3,000 daily Congress records. Daily Congress records were how people kept up with federal and congressional politics at the time. By 1912, there were over 1,200 members of the library. With the population of Newnan at the time being 5,500, over a fifth of the population were members of the library. Many people in the community loved the library, with members bringing flowers into the library to brighten up the space.
The Carnegie Library continued as a library until 1987, as a new facility was constructed on Hospital Road. The Carnegie Library then served as an overflow courtroom the county courthouse. In 2007, the library was restored by the City of Newnan, which brought back Carnegie Library services to the downtown area.
Historical information courtesy of the Carnegie Library and photo courtesy of Newnan-Coweta History Center