Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Built in 1908 with funds donated by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, this was the first Carnegie Library built on a Black Land-Grant college campus. Nathan Young, President of the State Normal College for Colored Students, with cooperation from the school’s alumni association, obtained a $10,000 donation from Carnegie to construct the library. A 1905 fire had destroyed Duval Hall, the college’s main academic building and original library. Carnegie Library, stocked with donations from alumni, was the first brick veneer building on this campus at the former location of Highwood Plantation. It was also the first building with indoor plumbing and electricity. During the 1950s and 1960s, the library served as an art gallery and education facility. In 1970, it became a religious center. In 1976, Florida A&M University President Benjamin Perry, Jr., designated it as the home of the Black Archives Research Center and Museum. In 1978, under the museum’s founding director, Dr. James N. Eaton, Sr., the library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2006, an addition to Carnegie Library was named in honor of Dr. Eaton and U.S. Representative Carrie Meek.