Braddock Carnegie Library has a new look — and a new name

Thursday’s grand reopening of the Braddock Carnegie Library was the most notable celebration of the old building since 1914, when an aging and white-haired Andrew Carnegie stood on a stage with a bunch of other formally dressed men and, on the library’s 25th anniversary, declared it a “center of light.”

Carnegie died five years later, and, by the mid-1970s, the library seemed poised to follow him to the ever-after. The center of light grew dark and empty, its doors secured with chains. Plaster walls crumbled. Books were scattered across the floor. Demolition was scheduled in 1978. All this makes its resurrection even more astounding.

These days, the auditorium gleams. The swimming pool has been converted to an event space called the Book Dive, and bright paint lights up the once dark and gloomy gymnasium. The building is still a maze of stairways, but an elevator and ramps make the facility fully accessible.

Vicki Vargo, the library’s executive director, received a standing ovation for her role in shepherding the library through the yearslong renovation process. Then she announced a new name for the facility: “Carnegie One.”

“You know, initially, we were called America’s oldest library,” she said. “And, you know, really, it sounds like we’re ready for the grave when you say we’re the oldest. It’s much better to say we’re the first, and we are the first.”

Here’s a look at some of the library’s new spaces: