The building has state significance because it was the first free tax-supported library in Kansas.

Peabody, of Boston, formerly vice-president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway company.

The contract for construction was awarded in early 1875, and the library was opened to the public in June; in February 1876 the state legislature authorized the township to levy a tax to support the library.

The building was used for club meetings and stood idle for a number of years.

[2] In 1960, while planning for the 1961 Kansas centennial celebration, local citizens organized to move the structure to a lot near its original location (east of the Carnegie library).