MALTA (AP)
An antiques dealer bought the 88-year-old Carnegie Library here to save it from being torn down. Phillips County officials put the building on the auction block last month after deciding that restoring and maintaining it was too expensive. Tana Oyler bought it for $2,000. The library was one of 17 constructed in Montana with money donated by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Between 1886 and 1919, Carnegie donated more than $40 million to pay for 1,679 new library buildings across the country, according to a National Park Service Web site. The Malta building served as the county’s library until 1978 and later was home to the Phillips County Museum and the Malta Food Bank. It currently is unoccupied. Over the years, the upstairs and basement furnaces have died and the building’s roof, floors and a wall have water damage. The county historical society considered buying the building but decide it couldn’t afford to restore it. Oyler said she didn’t intend to buy the building, but went to the auction to make sure it went for a fair price. The county had set a minimum bid at $500. The few others at the auction just wanted to learn the building’s fate. So after a short bidding war with a phone bidder, Oyler became the new owner. She said she doesn’t have the money for a complete overhaul but hopes to get the building at least in usable shape. “We just kind of fell into it, and we’re still scratching our heads about what to do,” Oyler said. “We just didn’t want to see it torn down.”
