Rosemount Public Library - Integrated Project Dossier (2016)

However, many of the Beaux-Arts features of the original library were compromised during the 1982 renovation; it was in fact this renovation that continues to deny the building a heritage designation. Thus, the significance of the building lies primarily in its history and modern-day context.

Rosemount Library was initially the second Carnegie Library constructed in Ottawa, the first being the Ottawa Public Library, opened in 1906. Carnegie Libraries were a series of libraries constructed during the late 19th-early 20th century from the funds of the American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The Rosemount branch, which was constructed in 1918, was the last library to be built during Andrew Carnegie's life as he died the following year.