North Battleford鈥檚 Carnegie Library was built in 1916 and was officially opened on March 1, 1917. As one of our city鈥檚 oldest buildings, the original library was built entirely from a $15,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation in New York. The March 18, 1917 edition of the North Battleford News speaks of 鈥渢hat famous philanthropic captain of industry, Andrew Carnegie鈥� who provided funds for 125 libraries to build in Canadian cities.
Most were located in Ontario, and North Battleford鈥檚 library was one of the last to be built from these funds and is presently the last Carnegie building left in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The grant was provided on the condition that the city 鈥渟upport the library at a cost of not less than that of $1,500 a year and provide a suitable site for the building.鈥� Credit must be given to Mayor Walker of that time for his untiring efforts on behalf of the library.
Plans began as early as 1914 but it was not until considerable correspondence had taken place between City Hall and the Carnegie foundation that the final blueprints were approved and the library took its shape on the corner of what was then known as Main Street and First Avenue.
The first year of operation was a busy one. One-fifth of the city鈥檚 population of 5,000 were registered as library borrowers. The book stock, as noted, consisted of 1,400 titles, most of which were obtained as donations by interested citizens who attended a variety of book showers and teas to stock the shelves.
It was Andrew Carnegie鈥檚 philosophy that the library not only provide books, but also be a neutral territory in which community groups could meet and discuss ideas that would benefit themselves and enhance community life. Thus the basement of the library was originally composed of an auditorium and several smaller rooms used for a variety of public functions.
After many years of service as a library, the City of North Battleford spent $760,000 to renovate the building and on May 6, 1989 the building official opened as the Allen Sapp Gallery. It was officially designated as a Provincial Heritage Property under The Heritage Property Act, Nov. 27, 1991.
