The first reading rooms and libraries in Eureka date from 1859, but they were not stable. The 1878 California Rogers Free Library Act permitted incorporated towns and cities to raise a tax for free reading rooms and public libraries. Eureka was the first city to finance a public library under the Rogers Act and housed its library in rented quarters.[2]
After receiving a $20,000 Carnegie library grant in 1901, the library trustees held a competition and selected local architects Knowles Evans and B.C. Tarver of Eureka to design the building[3] from red brick and Mad River granite exterior with two story solid redwood columns ringing a colorful tile mosaic floor in the domed rotunda.[2] When contractor Ambrose Foster ran over budget, the trustees sought but failed to obtain an additional $10,000 from Carnegie.[2] Changes to the building were few, but the original dome was removed; only a skylight remains.[2]
The Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986; recognized both as a Carnegie Library and an example of Classical Revival architecture in a nearly-original condition.[1]
In 1996, the City of Eureka and the Humboldt Arts Council helped save the Library which had been slated for demolition. The capital campaign to save the library raised $1.5 million from corporations, foundations and the local community. Restoration began in 1999 and the Library was converted to house a newly created Museum of Art, named after founding patron, northwest school artist Morris Graves, which opened on January 1, 2000.[4]
