The Baraboo Public Library, located one block west of the city’s courthouse square and business district was constructed in 1903. The Baraboo Public Library was among the earliest of the small public libraries in Wisconsin to be funded by the philanthropist and industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, and was designed by the local architectural firm of Claude and Starck.

Louis W. Claude, a native of Baraboo, and Edward F. Starck, born in Milwaukee, began their architectural firm in Madison, Wisconsin around 1896. During their partnership, which would span over the course of three decades, Claude and Starck developed an expertise in designing buildings for local communities; particularly focusing on small public libraries. The Baraboo Public Library would become the first of the Claude and Starck libraries designed in the classical style to be entered in the National Register.

The original red clay roof still sits atop of this neoclassical, one-story, orange brick structure. While the exterior is most certainly striking with its Ionic columns, one of the most unique aspects of the Baraboo Public Library is found inside the library. “Dancing Boys”, a one-half scale plaster cast frieze lines the north wall of the library’s east reading room and was added one year after the library’s construction. The frieze is a replica of the famous frieze completed by the Italian sculptor, Luca della Robbia.