(Photos) Two southwestern Michigan Carnegie libraries

If you've attended a public school in the last quarter-century, you've no doubt learned that rich people, particularly rich white men, are evil.

Andrew Carnegie was born into poverty in Scotland but by the time he retired was one of the richest men in America if not the world. When he died in 1919 he had given away 90 percent of his fortune.

One of his philanthropic efforts was the establishment of public libraries. Carnegie would match the funds raised of municipalities throughout the English-speaking world that wanted these learning centers

I encountered two Carnegie libraries in southwestern Michigan earlier this month.

Now an arts center, the Three Rivers Public Library in St. Joseph County opened in 1904. Its facade is made of local pink granite.

The Bronson Public Library in Branch County is in the Classical Revival style that many other Carnegie libraries utilized. People began checking books out there in 1910.