[4] After successfully raising the funds to purchase a lot, the city laid the cornerstone for the Cook Memorial Building on November 7, 1877.

Even though the Library Association no longer had to pay rent and charged a fee for borrowing books, it was struggling financially and could not resolve the issue itself.

[5] The question was successfully put to the vote at the April 1900 election, the first in Iowa which permitted women voters.

It was expanded in 1963 to provide space for further services for children, but the expansion caused displacement of the sand on which the building was founded, leading to structural damage.

In 1966, the Carnegie Building had to be demolished, and the library temporarily relocated to a disused department store until new quarters could be constructed.

The subsequent Davenport Public Library building, designed by architect Edward Durell Stone, was opened on October 6, 1968.