Carnegie Community Centre

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Carnegie Centre

Carnegie Community Centre is located at 401 Main Street (at Hastings), in the old Carnegie Public Library building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Andrew Carnegie was a wealthy and highly abusive US philanthropist who sacrificed his workers on the altar of industry and who willed $333 million at his death to build 2,509 libraries throughout the English speaking world. One of these buildings became the City of Vancouver's first public library, in 1903 receiving start-up capital of $50,000. The corner stone was laid by the Masons. For decades, the top floor was the home of the Vancouver Museum. The city's central library moved into a more spacious building in the 1950s and the building eventually fell into disrepair.

Neighbourhood poverty activists from the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association convinced city council to turn it into a public space for local residents, and it opened as the Carnegie Community Centre in the 1980s. It now houses recreation facilities, a low-cost cafeteria, a branch of the Vancouver Public Library, and a variety of services and programs tailored to the specific needs of the neighbourhood, which is one of the poorest in Canada.

The Carnegie Community Centre is owned by the city of Vancouver and is funded by the Social Planning Department. The Centre Is open 9AM to 10:30 PM (13 and a half hrs), 7 days/week, almost 365 days/year.

The Carnegie Centre is often referred to as the "living-room" of the Downtown Eastside and described as an Oasis, partly due to the fact that it provides a safe, drug & alcohol-free environment.

The Carnegie Community Centre Association (Board of Directors) is elected annually from the membership. Membership is only $1.00 for the calendar year and all programs are free to members.

There is also an Adult Learning Centre on the top floor, which provides an informal atmosphere and one-on-one tutoring.

The Carnegie Centre also puts out a bi-weekly newsletter which features articles of interest the the DTES Community. The Newsletter is edited by Paul R. Taylor.