Cherokee County Historical Museum
Feb 06, 03:04 PM
Did you know that this building was once a library? Even more interesting is that the library was built with money that was given to the town by the Scottish-American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie.
The Town of Murphy received a grant of $7,500 on May 15, 1916 which paid for a good portion of the construction cost of the library at that time. This was one of ten libraries built in North Carolina with Carnegie grants. Throughout the country, Carnegie help build nearly 1,700 libraries by the time the last library grants were awarded in 1919.
Even as a child, Carnegie had a passion for books and libraries. His personal experience as an immigrant and laborer that was given access to books by his employer helped form this passion.
With hard work and help from others, he worked his way into a position of wealth, reinforcing his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving, and grants for libraries like this one in Murphy are its best-known expression. This building housed the Murphy Library for 60 years until it moved from this location to the new building located just down the hill during the summer of 1976.
The Cherokee County Historical Museum is now housed in this old library building. The collections in the museum include an extensive display of Cherokee artifacts, a mineral display, a doll collection and area genealogy and artifacts from early settlers. Arthur Palmer's collection of over 2000 items found its way here in 1977. He was a lifetime collector of artifacts, some of which were excavated from local Cherokee burial mounds. Other artifacts were purchased or bartered from area citizens.
The museum also houses an interpretive display that interprets the life of the Cherokee people in this area before their removal along the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma.
(Source: A Pictorial History of Cherokee County 1995.)
The Town of Murphy received a grant of $7,500 on May 15, 1916 which paid for a good portion of the construction cost of the library at that time. This was one of ten libraries built in North Carolina with Carnegie grants. Throughout the country, Carnegie help build nearly 1,700 libraries by the time the last library grants were awarded in 1919.
Even as a child, Carnegie had a passion for books and libraries. His personal experience as an immigrant and laborer that was given access to books by his employer helped form this passion.
With hard work and help from others, he worked his way into a position of wealth, reinforcing his belief in a society based on merit, where anyone who worked hard could become successful. This conviction was a major element of his philosophy of giving, and grants for libraries like this one in Murphy are its best-known expression. This building housed the Murphy Library for 60 years until it moved from this location to the new building located just down the hill during the summer of 1976.
The Cherokee County Historical Museum is now housed in this old library building. The collections in the museum include an extensive display of Cherokee artifacts, a mineral display, a doll collection and area genealogy and artifacts from early settlers. Arthur Palmer's collection of over 2000 items found its way here in 1977. He was a lifetime collector of artifacts, some of which were excavated from local Cherokee burial mounds. Other artifacts were purchased or bartered from area citizens.
The museum also houses an interpretive display that interprets the life of the Cherokee people in this area before their removal along the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma.
(Source: A Pictorial History of Cherokee County 1995.)