[2][3] Andrew Carnegie was a Pittsburgh industrialist who made a fortune from his huge Carnegie Steel Company in the late 1800s, but who also wrote that the "man who dies rich dies disgraced.

Initially he helped fund them in places where he had a connection, but starting in 1898 he began helping fund new libraries nationwide, if the local community would provide the building site and ten percent of the operating costs.

Jennings, who also designed the Dairy Barn and several academic buildings for UW-Madison.

The second story housed the assembly hall of the Apollo Club, a local musical group.

A stage with classical proscenium was added and the first production was Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in December of 1932.