My name is Harriet Anfinson, former librarian of the Valley City Carnegie Library, and I would like to tell you how our library came to be.

I was looking through the old minutes of the Tuesday Club, the oldest club in Valley City and the second oldest in the state, when I came upon a quaint little entry from 1898. It read: “Proposition made of meditating on the subject of a public library.” That small line was the spark from which our public library was born.

At first, we had almost nothing. After returning from a state federation meeting in Fargo and paying our dues, we had ten cents left. After much merriment, it was voted to make that ten cents the nucleus of our library fund.

Then our real work began. We sponsored recitals and lectures, selling tickets again and again. Oh my, how we worked! We held an Art and Curio Loan in Clark’s Hall, served lunches, hired traveling musicians, danced, and offered the public something truly out of the ordinary. We labored over our Tuesday Club Cookbook, proofreading, fretting, revising, until it became a success we were proud to call our own.

We wrote to philanthropists. Mr. Rockefeller never answered. Mr. Carnegie did, but only through his secretary. He was abroad, we were told and our request seemed hardly worth troubling him with. Still, we were not discouraged. We believed that if Mr. Carnegie could only truly see our effort, he would listen.

So we asked Governor Frank White to write on our behalf. At the same time, the citizens of Valley City voted “yes” on the question of a public library. A library board was appointed, taxes were arranged, and we proved, on paper and in spirit, that we were ready. At last, Mr. Carnegie agreed to give Valley City the funds needed for a library, provided the city would maintain it. His gift would not exceed fifteen thousand dollars.

On an October evening in 1903, the Tuesday Club, at the invitation of the library board, opened the doors with a public reception. As the rooms filled with voices and light, we knew the meditating had finally become something real.

That library, our Carnegie library, still stands. More than a century later, Valley City has kept its promise. Tested by time and weather, the building has been renewed again and again by community effort. In 1997, a thoughtful addition expanded the library to meet the needs of a growing community, blending a new space with the historic structure. In 2024, neighbors raised funds, once again, to repair the roof and uncover a long-hidden dome, restoring light to the heart of the building.