The Carnegie Building was originally the Duluth Public Library. It began in 1901 with a generous gift by Andrew Carnegie to the City of Duluth for the construction of a monumental public library. Since then its grand neo-classic design has been a familiar landmark on the Duluth skyline.

When construction was completed in 1901/1902, the building went into use as Duluth's public library and stayed that way until the late 1970's when the new Duluth public library on Superior street went into service. The building avoided being demolished and turned into a parking lot at that time due to the lobbying of concerned Duluthians. Shortly thereafter the building was placed on the National Register of Historic places and a large private investment was acquired to convert the interior into distinctive office spaces while preserving the building's historic character.

Since that time, the building has changed hands a few times and sadly fell into a state of disrepair. Several tenants of the building have remained with the building since those early days --some for 5, 10 and 15+ years! Their hope was that some day their faithful tenancy would be rewarded by the building being acquired by good stewards. In December of 2001 that happened. A local (middle class) family with a willingness to invest their home equity and retirement (as well as all of their free time) into the building successfully negotiated for and purchased the building from its then current Twin Cities owners.

For the past 7 years, the new family of owners has worked one project at a time to restore the building. Thanks to the investment of their homes, their retirement and the faithful tenancy of some of the building's residents, the building has now reached a notably restored state and is prepared to take on new tenants. As of mid summer 2008 the building is more than 90% occupied and is excited about greeting prospective new tenants.

To see more about the restoration projects and to make contributions, please navigate through this site. This site is relatively new and will be proactively updated and added to. As restoration continues and as the building continues to grow into its new life, this site will also grow as a service resource for its tenants and as an educational resource for Dulutians.