In 2016 the city of Burlington celebrated the centennial of its Carnegie Library. The Burlington Carnegie Library, located in Skagit County, Washington, was completed in June 1916. The cornerstone states: “A Gift of Andrew Carnegie 1916.” In planning for the centennial, it was discovered that it was a standard practice for these historic buildings to have encased in the building’s cornerstone a time capsule. This intrigued Burlington’s historic preservation commission. Wouldn’t it be marvelous to remove the time capsule and have a public reveal of the contents at the centennial celebration? A local building contractor volunteered to carefully remove the cornerstone. It was still a surprise to actually see the time capsule buried within the cornerstone. Inside the time capsule were perfectly preserved city documents from June 1916, the date of the Carnegie Library’s opening to its long service to the community.
The 2016 time capsule was filled by the Burlington Public Library staff with records of the present City Council and other items suggested by the community — including a drone fly-over video of Burlington created by a 6th-grade Burlington student. We look forward to the opening of this time capsule in 2116.
The guest speaker at the celebration was Darlene Maloy, a former librarian who worked in that library for most of her career. Many people shared affectionate memories of working or visiting that library over the years. From their comments a movement was born — to preserve the Carnegie Library and recall it to public life again.
On Saturday, June 21, 2025, the community of Burlington celebrated the 109th anniversary of its Carnegie Library with the unveiling and dedication of a historic marker. The marker recognized the Carnegie Library being placed on the National Historic Register in 1982. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation funded this historic marker to honor this library’s past.
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