Grand Junction Public Library (first location), Grand Junction, Colorado 1901 1938 Southeast corner of Seventh Street and Grand Avenue Grand Junction Mesa Colorado 81501 USA https://mesacountylibraries.org/aboutus/history/ Mesa County Libraries history In 1901, four years after the organization of the Grand Junction Public Library, the library moved into a new building on the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and 7th Street. The Grand Junction Women’s Club, who had previously created a subscription library that was available to “anyone whose morals were unquestionably good,” sponsored the effort, receiving money from both Andrew Carnegie and the city for the Carnegie library’s construction. Andrew Carnegie provided $5,000 for the library's construction, and the Women's Library Association fund-raised for the matching $5,000 that Carnegie required. Here is a description of the Grand Junction Public Library's first building from local historian Don MacKendrick: “The site for the new Carnegie Library, as it was called, was selected at the south[east] corner of Grand Avenue at 7th Street and construction was completed in 1901. The 31 by 43 foot building was done in Colonial style and, according to newspaper reports, elegantly lighted, furnace heated, and fire proof. Book capacity: 50,000 volumes. Those 900 volumes that the Association had collected must have rattled around in the building when it was first opened. Other interesting factors about running a library in those days, that Mr. Van Camp may be interested in: The first librarian, Mrs. B. F. Jay was a member of the Association and was appointed librarian at a salary of $35 a month. Out of that sum, she was to pay an assistant librarian, so I don’t know what her take-home pay was. At the opening ceremonies, the mayor was there and town dignitaries. The Reverend Robert Sanderson invoked divine blessing upon the undertaking, taking special note, said the newspaper report, to point out and give thanks to Mr. Carnegie because he had been able to accumulate his great wealth and was now using it to elevate his fellow man.” The second Lowell School was built just south of the library on 7th Street in 1925, with the library located closer to the intersection of 7th and Grand. The first Mesa County Jail (as opposed to the first city of Grand Junction jail), was also in the same area. Having been built in 1883, it was located just southeast of the library and school, between 7th and 8th Streets along White Avenue. By 1938, the library had outgrown the facility, and it was closed in favor of a new building, which was constructed on the corner of 5th Street and White Avenue. https://mesacountylibraries.org/aboutus/history/ yes yes