On the wall as you enter the downtown Eugene Public Library is a weathered bronze plaque that reads: “The funds for the erection of this building were contributed by Andrew Carnegie.” That plaque adorned the first Carnegie Library in Oregon, which opened in Eugene in 1906, one of 1,689 that Andrew Carnegie helped fund throughout the United States. That plaque was proudly displayed in that first library and its subsequent iterations in 1959 and 2002.

You might wonder how it was that Eugene came to achieve that distinction. After all, in 1906 Eugene was a small town, albeit with a university, with a population of less than 9,000. The answer is to be found in the adjoining bronze plaque that reads: “This library was founded by the Fortnightly Club.”

What was that club and who were its members? The Fortnightly Club of Eugene was established as a study group of 22 women in 1893. In the course of their intellectual pursuits, they quickly came to the conclusion that a library was sorely needed in their community. So in 1895 they started a subscription library of their own books, which was quickly outpaced by local demand.

In 1901, the Eugene City Council agreed to provide a minimal tax levy so that the Fortnightly project could become a free circulating library in 1902, housed in a rented room downtown. Ever enterprising, the club members decided a freestanding building was required and appealed to Carnegie for his support, and were successful in obtaining a $10,000 grant to construct that first library in 1906.

The library legacy of Carnegie and those Fortnightly women of the early 1900s lives on. The Fortnightly Club still exists today. And its support of the Eugene Public Library remains unwavering. Today we have a library of which we all can be proud, worthy of our continued and expanding support. Those women did not even have the right to vote, but we do. Please vote yes on the Eugene Public Library levy, Measure 20-381, and return your ballot before the May 19 deadline.

Cathy Briner
Eugene