Chariton Public Library

Chariton Public Library is located in Chariton, Iowa, United States. The Library and Reading Room Association was formed in Chariton in 1879, but it was short-lived. The county superintendent of schools started a teachers' library in the courthouse sometime afterward. By this time the community had a library of 800 volumes. There was an effort by study clubs in town in 1898 to raise money and establish a free public library. The Chariton Federation of Women's Clubs took the lead and opened a library with the books from the courthouse in two rooms above Gibbons Drug Store on the town square. Citizens approved a local tax to support the library the following year.

Librarian Margaret Brown and Library Board President Thomas Gay applied to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for a grant to build a library building, and on January 13, 1903 they were awarded $11,000. The Chicago architectural firm of Patton & Miller was chosen to design the new building. It was dedicated on October 28, 1904. The Neoclassical style building is a single-story structure of dark brown rock-faced brick with Bedford stone trim. The symmetrical facade features a projecting portico with stone columns in the Doric order, brick pilasters, a stone cornice, and a triangular brick and stone pediment. The building is capped with a hip roof The interior plan of the building became known as the "Chariton Plan" because it was first used here before it was used for other libraries in Iowa.

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