By the time he died, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie had given away more than $350 million, including to build many public libraries. Grants for more than 1600 libraries. Carol Caplan is a librarian in the Nashville room at the downtown Nashville library. Carnegie would build the building but wouldn't set up a fund to maintain the library; a lot of cities wouldn't commit to accepting the library. Nashville had 4 locations, the most recent of which was in East Nashville. Percy Warner donated the land. East Nashville at the time had gone through a fire, a flood, and tornado. They didn't have a fund for books at first. Ruth Brown grew up a regular at the East branch library.
