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The Cedar Rapids Public Library was established in 1895. In the early years, the library was located in a variety of locations including upper floors of the Granby and Dows buildings. In 1901, Andrew Carnegie pledged to donate $75,000 to the construction of a new Library. The Carnegie library opened in the spring of 1905. Over the next 80 years, there were continuous expansion projects at the Carnegie Library. After multiple additions, the library was on nine different levels, only three of which were served by elevators. These additions included a children's room, garages for the bookmobiles, public reading rooms and administrative offices. It was during this same time period that several reading stations were established. The number was always changing, but at times there were more than a dozen branch libraries.