The Civic Improvement Association started a library in a rented commercial building downtown in 1901.

[2] The initial collections were acquired through Iowa's traveling library system.

A referendum to support a public library was passed in 1904, which made a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York possible.

The single-story brick structure was built on a raised basement, and features vaguely Tudor Revival elements.

This article about a property in Dickinson County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.