1800s

Nov 30
1899 June 1
The Wylie Avenue Branch opens. An estimated 1,000 children visited the branch on its first day.
Nov 30
1899 February 1
The West End Branch opens and introduces something brand new for libraries: a story hour for children. The program proves so popular, that it’s soon expanded to Main and the other branches.
Nov 30
1898 December 1
Andrew Carnegie offers to pay for an addition to the original building so the library can use the entire space, with the new areas to house the Art Gallery & Science Museum, plus add a foyer to the Music Hall. Initial costs were estimated at $1.75 million; by the time it’s complete, Carnegie donates $5 million and pays for additional costs directly.
Nov 30
1898 July
The Home Library program begins delivering wooden boxes full of books to homes in neighborhoods without library branches. A volunteer visits each home weekly to read to children, talk about books, and tell stories.
Nov 30
1898 April
The Children’s Department, which will overseee services at Main and branches, is established. It is believed to be the first fully organized Children’s Department in public libraries.
Nov 30
1896 February 1
The Periodicals room is converted to a children’s reading room since the original building plan neglected to include a space dedicated to children.
Nov 30
1895 November 5
The completed Carnegie Institute, housing the Library, Art Gallery, Science Museum, and Music Hall was dedicated with ceremonies and a weekend of concerts at the Carnegie Music Hall.
Nov 30
1895 April 1
Edwin H. Anderson becomes the first Librarian of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh after serving as director of the Carnegie Library in Braddock, which opened in 1889. Anderson left CLP in 1904 and eventually became director of the New York Public Library.
Nov 30
1893 July
Construction begins in earnest for Carnegie Public Library in Oakland, then the geographical center of the city, though it was undeveloped at the time.
Nov 30
1890
Carnegie again offers Pittsburgh money ($1 million) to erect a massive building for a library, museums, and concert hall. This time around, the City accepts, having fixed its pesky tax issue in 1887.
Nov 30
1881
Carnegie, who has made his fortune in railroads, oil, and steel, offers Pittsburgh $250,000 for public library building if the city commits to annual funding. City Council rejected the offer because the city couldn’t legally use tax money for a library.
Nov 11
1853 May 19
Andrew Carnegie writes to the Pittsburgh Dispatch arguing that he should have access to the Anderson Library, a private library on the North Side intended for “working boys.”
Oct 15
1801-1866
Various subscription, Congregational, private, and school libraries and reading rooms serve some residents of Pittsburgh.
Oct 16
1848
William Carnegie moves his family, including 13-year-old Andrew, from Dunfermline, Scotland, to Pittsburgh.

1900s

Dec 01
1999
August Wilson, who dropped out of high school, but continued his education by reading voraciously at the Hill District branch, receives his high school diploma from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
Dec 01
1999
Herb Elish, a business executive, becomes library director after Croneberger’s death. His business background leads to changes that make library spaces more user-friendly.
Dec 01
1989
The library introduces CAROLINE, its first computerized catalog system. Restoration/renovation of Main branch.
Dec 01
1986
Robert B. Croneberger becomes library Director. His philosophy of the library as an active information advocate, rather than a “passive dispenser of information,” starts many new partnerships for the library.
Dec 01
1982
New location for Hill District branch established after demolition of large parts of the neighborhood in the 1960s left it far away from the people it was intended to serve.
Dec 01
1969 February 28
New East Liberty Branch opens after its former location was razed for a redevelopment project.
Dec 01
1969 January
Anthony A. Martin named director of CLP. Under his tenure, four branches will open or move to new buildings, and modernize more services.
Dec 01
1968
Service to the Blind, which was based in Main, and later Allegheny Regional Library, moves to Baum Boulevard, where it still operates today, and adds services for physically handicapped patrons.
Dec 01
1966
The library establishes the International Poetry Forum and presents annual readings by distinguished poets from around the world.
Dec 01
1965
A $1.6 million renovation project gives the Allegheny Regional Library its first face-lift since it was built in 1890.
Dec 01
1964 September 30
Keith Doms is named library director and oversees major organizational and administrative changes to modernize the library.
Dec 01
1956 October 19
The Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny, and its Woods Run branch, become part of the CLP system. Even though Pittsburgh absorbed Allegheny City in 1907, the library continued to operate independently for another 49 years.
Dec 01
1956 June 1
All residents of Allegheny County may now borrow books from CLP and its branches, and bookmobiles are added to serve communities without their own libraries. The expanded services are funded by the County Commissioners.
Dec 01
1945 November 5
The Library celebrates its 50th anniversary with an open house attended by 3,000 people.
Dec 01
1943 September
The Knoxville Branch moves into “temporary” quarters after the Rochelle School building is sold; it stays for 22 years.
Dec 01
1942
The library’s Victory Book Campaign asks for donations of books for military libraries at home and abroad. Pittsburgh forwards more books to these libraries than any other city except New York.
Dec 01
1936 March 17
The St. Patrick’s Day Flood damages two branches: The Penn Avenue branch at 28th Street and Penn Avenue, and the West End branch.
Dec 01
1933
The Great Depression causes a drop in city funding for the library. Staff is cut from 285 to 232. To compensate for the loss of staff, hours are cut at branches, and deposit stations are closed.
Dec 01
1930
The Brookline and Carrick neighborhoods get storefront branches. Brookline will move two more times before getting its own building; Carrick will relocate to a former movie theater that provides plenty of space.
Dec 01
1928
Ralph Munn succeeds Dr. Leete as library Director. He will stay for 36 years and expand CLP’s services throughout Allegheny County.
Dec 01
1928
The Knoxville-Carrick Branch opens inside Rochelle School. The Board of Education provides space, utilities and cleaning services; the Library provides staff, books, furniture and equipment.
Dec 01
1924 June 2
The Business District Branch sets up shop in the City-County Building, combining specialized business knowledge and general neighborhood lending services.
Dec 01
1917
John Hopkins Leete becomes the library’s Director, leaving his position as Dean of the School of Applied Science at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now CMU).
Dec 01
1910 March 10
The Homewood Branch opens. This will be the last new library building in the CLP system until 1964.
Dec 01
1909 January 30
The South Side branch opens, serving a neighborhood where more than half of the residents were born outside of the United States. The branch specifically employed a Polish woman to help explain the library’s services and register other Poles.
Dec 01
1908
Harrison W. Craver named Director of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, rather than having the title “Librarian” like his predecessors.
Dec 01
1907 April 11
Andrew Carnegie formally presents the $6,000,000 Carnegie Institute in a dedication ceremony witnessed by 20,000.
Dec 01
1907
Service to the blind begins with a small collection of embossed books at Main. By the end of the first year, 86 readers have registered and borrowed 1,461 books.
Dec 01
1906 October 10
The East Liberty branch opens. It’s the largest of the branches and serves 75,000 people in the East End.
Dec 01
January 1906
A “call station” for books opens at Kaufmann Brothers. It houses a small collection, but is primarily a pickup point for books patrons request from the Main library. By 1914, there are 259 similar stations at fire stations, department stores, schools, and playgrounds.
Dec 01
1904-1907
The renovations funded by Carnegie finally begin. In addition to expanding the building, the two campanile-style towers were removed because Carnegie thought they looked like “donkeys’ ears.”
Dec 01
1904
Anderson H. Hopkins succeeds Edwin Anderson as Librarian. He serves for three years before retiring due to poor health.
Dec 01
1900 October 1
A Training School for children’s librarians welcomes its first class of five students at Carnegie Library.
Dec 01
1900 Aug 16
The Hazelwood Branch opens with one feature that sets it apart from other branches – it has an auditorium that seats 600 people.
Nov 30
1900 April
Harrison Craver, a chemist and metallurgist, joins the library to organize the first Technology Department in any municipal library. Students, and engineers in private practice, are the most frequent visitors to the collection.

2000s

Dec 01
2020, March-August
All Carnegie Library branches close to the public as part of the state-mandated COVID-19 virus containment efforts.
Dec 01
2016
CLP becomes a partner in the Historic Pittsburgh, an online collection of digitized primary resources pertaining to the history of the city.
Dec 01
2014
Edith Abeyta becomes Artist in Residence at the new Hazelwood branch, a project sponsored by the Library and the city’s Office of Public Art.
Dec 01
2012
The Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Heritage Collection, a digital archive, goes online, providing access to more than 500,000 items from the CLP’s Archives and Special Collections that tell the story of the city’s steel, iron, and coal industries.
Dec 01
2011
The “Our Library, Our Future” tax initiative passes, staving off proposed branch closures and restoring reduced hours.
Dec 01
2009
Library officials announce plans to close branches in Beechview, Hazelwood, Lawrenceville, West End, and merge or relocate branches in Carrick, Knoxville, and Mt. Washington due to budget issues. The closures are averted when money from legalized table games and a 2011 tax initiative is directed to the library.
Dec 01
2008
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh opens its first new library in nearly three decades at the key, once-blighted Hill District intersection of Centre Avenue and Kirkpatrick Street.
Dec 01
2006 April 9
The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — Allegheny Regional branch on the North Side is struck by lightning, forcing the building to permanently close to the public.
Dec 01
2004
Downtown & Business branch moves from Wood Street to its current location on Smithfield Street.
Dec 01
2002-2003
As part of a major renovation campaign, Main, Downtown, Squirrel Hill, Brookline and Homewood all see redesigns and improvements.
Dec 01
2001
Lucille Colamarino takes advantage of library fine Amnesty Week to return a book she borrowed in 1924. (The fine would have been $12,500!)