State will consider La Grande Carnegie Library’s addition to the National Register of Historic Places
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, February 5th, 2026 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department recently announced that the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation will host a virtual meeting on Thursday, February 19. On the agenda is the consideration of formally adding the La Grande Carnegie Library Building to the National Register of Historic Places.
This consideration follows a multi-year effort by the City of La Grande to have the building added to the register, opening it up for new grant opportunities and allowing for more extensive restoration of the building’s facade and other historical elements. While leased to Arts Center East, the building is still owned by the City of La Grande.
In early 2024, the city initially allocated $20,000 to fund the process, half from city funds and half by grant funding from the State Historic Preservation Office. This budget was gradually reduced to around $9,000 by the Fall of 2025.
The full meeting agenda, along with options to view the meeting and submit testimony can be found here: https://www.oregon.gov/oprd/OH/Pages/Commissions.aspx#sachp
For those unfamiliar with its history and the project, the La Grande Carnegie building was originally constructed in 1913. One of 1,689 such Carnegie Libraries built in the United States between 1816 and 1919 (according to the U.S. National Parks Service), including 31 in Oregon, it served as the La Grande Public Library all the way through September 2006, retiring in this capacity with the construction of the Cook Memorial Library. Currently, the building is one of only a handful of Carnegie Libraries remaining in the United States that have not been listed as a historic landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
