[5] The front of the building faces west toward Main Street, dominated by a Roman arch with an Ionic portico, topped by a broken pediment.

On the north facade, facing Seventh Street, a panel reads "Intelligence is the Foundation of Prosperity and Social Order".

[5] The idea of a public library for Racine was first proposed at a meeting of businessmen and ladies at the home of A. Arthur Guilbert in 1895.

A library association was founded the following year, which lobbied for a successful ballot referendum that provided city funding to the project.

[3] After contentious debate, the library board chose the southeast corner of Main and Seventh streets as the site for its new building.

[3] Its ground floor featured two reading rooms, with a small auditorium and museum upstairs, and newspaper archives in the basement.

Architects Kirchhoff & Rose submitted a plan that year for a large five-story building on that site, which the PWA approved but which was never built.

[4] Various uses were proposed for it, including making it part of the University of Wisconsin–Racine campus or administrative offices for the Racine Unified School District.

In addition to the former Carnegie library building, the historical society also owns the 1888 Bohemian Schoolhouse in Caledonia.