Star Herald Editorial

 
There is a quiet discussion underway in the community right now about the future of the Carnegie Cultural Center on North Freeman Avenue in Luverne.
For the past two decades, the city of Luverne, which owns the building, has leased it to the Council for Arts and Humanities in Rock County (CAHRC).
That group includes Rock County Fine Arts Association, Blue Mound Area Theatre, Rock County Historical Society, Blue Mound Woodcarvers, Green Earth Players, Luverne Street Music and the Luverne Area Chamber and Convention and Visitors Bureau.
At one time, all of these members had a use for the Carnegie building, but times are changing and last month, the CAHRC board (on a split vote) decided to terminate its lease with the city, effective Dec. 31.
The question now becomes “What is an appropriate use of this public building?”
The structure was built in 1904 as one of 65 Carnegie Public Libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Corporation, which contributed millions toward library construction in Minnesota.
The Carnegie was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and served as the Rock County Community Library until the late 1980s.
After the public library reopened in a former bank building on West Main Street, the Carnegie was renovated and reopened in 1992 as the Carnegie Cultural Center.
Carnegie’s original intent was to serve the public, and now we are at a crossroads of how that purpose will be fulfilled going forward.
It’s a beautiful, stately building with vast open interior spaces filled with natural light through its signature arched windows. The quartzite fireplace and oak woodwork and reference desk survived during its time as a library building and cultural center.
Will these beloved architectural features survive the Carnegie’s next tenants? We hope so.
And we also hope the building can continue serving the area’s thriving arts community, whether that be with performing art, fine art, history or — as it has in the past — a combination of all.