Columbus Library in Columbus, Ohio, says Andrew Carnegie used his riches to build 2,509 libraries because he knew that access to books could change lives.

A photo shows the original entrance to Delaware Public Library, which opened in 1906 thanks to steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie was born in Scotland in 1835 and immigrated to the United States as a child, settling near Pittsburgh.

At age 13, he worked as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill for $1.20 per week and steadily worked his way up through jobs as a messenger, telegraph operator, and railroad superintendent. His investments in railroads, steel, oil, and bonds eventually made him one of the richest people in the world.

A self-taught success, Carnegie had little formal education. Instead, he relied on access to a private library, where he read voraciously. Because access to books changed the course of his life, libraries became a primary focus of his philanthropy. He vowed to give away his fortune before his death.

Carnegie built 2,509 libraries around the world, including 1,679 in the United States and 82 in Ohio—like Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Main Library and this original Delaware Public Library location.

The building is Neo-Classical Revival in style, built of yellow brick on a stone foundation. Its central rotunda featured a stained-glass dome, and carved Corinthian columns separated the reading rooms from the central desk area. The words “Carnegie Library – Free to All” are carved in stone above the entrance.

It was completed in 1906 at a cost of $21,500, paid in full by Andrew Carnegie.

In 1984, the library moved to a larger building on Winter Street. Today, the original Carnegie building is home to the Delaware County Law Library.

Carnegie once wrote: “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”