Mirror Lake Library

The St. Petersburg Public Library is a Carnegie library built in 1915 in Beaux-Arts style. It was one of 10 Florida Carnegie libraries to receive grants awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 1901 to 1917. Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided funding for more than 3,000 Carnegie libraries in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The library is significant to the city's history as the first permanent home of the public library system and embodies the transformation of the city in the second decade of the twentieth century from a pioneer village to a city with viable cultural institutions.
In 1908, the St. Petersburg City Council and concerned citizens began on a journey to get funding for a public library. It was the culmination of a five-year pursuit by Councilman Ralph Veillard, W.L. Straub , and Annie McCrae, in 1913 that the city was awarded a $17,500 grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The grant was approved and matched by the city, and the site on the banks of the city Reservoir was chosen on July 17, 1914.

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