- Contact Information
Fairfield Public Library
412 North D Street
PO Box 278
Fairfield, NE 68938
Phone: 402-726-2104
Fax: 402-726-2388
Email: fplibrary@hotmail.com
- Hours
Monday & Wednesday
1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Saturday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm- Library Staff
- Stephanie Haack
- Tysha Francis
- Tina Fike
Library Board
- Angie Ridgway
- Thelma Soucie
- Nancy Bishoff
- Beth Shipman
- Susan Short
Library History
The Fairfield Public Library was built in 1913 and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 2001. It is a Carnegie Library which means it was built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Over 2,500 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929. More than half of these libraries are still standing and still in use as a library!!
In the early 20th century, a Carnegie library was often the most imposing structure in hundreds of small American communities from Maine to California. Most of the library buildings were unique, displaying a number of architectural styles, including Beaux-Arts, Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival, and Spanish Colonial. Scottish Baronial was one of the styles used in Carnegie’s native Scotland. Each style was chosen by the community, although as the years went by James Bertram, Carnegie’s secretary, became less tolerant of designs which were not to his taste. The architecture was typically simple and formal, welcoming patrons to enter through a prominent doorway, nearly always accessed via a staircase. The entry staircase symbolized a person’s elevation by learning. Similarly, outside virtually every library was a lamppost or lantern to symbolize enlightenment.
