Grafton, North Dakota was a by-product of railroad construction in Walsh County in 1881, though it didn’t officially become a town until 1903. In the years between, numerous businesses and homes alike were constructed in the new city. Grafton was booming. Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of women formed a local magazine club and began meeting in a room above the Grafton Drug. It was here that the dream of a library was born.

From 1883 to 1929, there was another boom happening that was driven by Andrew Carnegie, a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist who had begun donating funds for library buildings in communities large and small across America. In March of 1902, Grafton citizens penned a letter requesting a grant for $10,000 to construct a library. The community rallied behind the project, collecting nearly 400 books, and started a campaign that raised an additional $1,240 for the project. The library opened on January 28, 1904 or 1905 and Grafton became the first city in North Dakota to have a Carnegie Library.

While an addition was constructed in the early 1970s, the original building still has most of its’ century-old touches, including much of the original woodwork and a fireplace. The library has undergone several changes over the years, but it still has the same welcoming feel it always has. Today, the upper level of the original library contains three main sections: a North Dakota history room, a room filled with shelves of mystery books, and a bright and cheerful teen room.

In total, Andrew Carnegie donated more than forty million dollars for over 1600 library buildings. In North Dakota eight public Carnegie libraries were built between 1901 and 1916. The Carnegie library in Grafton is believed to be the only one in North Dakota or Minnesota that is still serving as a library today.