🏢 Denver Public Library — Denver, Colorado

Sarah Platt Decker Branch Library

On the edge of Platt Park stands the Decker Branch, a 1913 Carnegie library shaped like a fanciful Elizabethan cottage — leaded diamond-paned windows, a green-tile gable roof, ornate chimneys, and early-20th-century murals inside.

📖 About Sarah Platt Decker Branch Library

The Sarah Platt Decker Branch opened on June 17, 1913, the second of Denver's first four Carnegie branches, built with an additional $80,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie. It stands at the northeast corner of Platt Park and was designed by the architects Marean and Norton as a whimsical recreation of an English Elizabethan cottage, complete with leaded, diamond-paned windows, a gable roof of green tile, and ornate chimneys. Inside, the building is decorated with murals dating to the early twentieth century. The branch honors Sarah S. Platt Decker — a suffrage-movement leader, clubwoman, and civic benefactor who, upon her death, became the first woman to lie in state at the Colorado State Capitol. The Decker Branch was designated a Denver landmark in 1984 and was renovated in 1993, and it remains one of the roughly 2,500 Carnegie libraries built worldwide.

⭐ What makes this branch special

• Opened June 17, 1913, as the second of Denver's original four Carnegie branches
• English Elizabethan-cottage design by Marean and Norton, with diamond-paned windows and a green-tile roof
• Early-20th-century murals inside; designated a Denver landmark in 1984 and renovated in 1993
• Named for suffrage leader Sarah Platt Decker, the first woman to lie in state at the Colorado Capitol

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