Fairbanks' First Library

George C. Thomas, a Philadelphia banker, read about the screened-off section in St. Mathew's Church that was being used as the only reading room in Fairbanks. He offered to pay for the construction of Fairbanks' first library in 1909 so Fairbanks residents would have a proper place to read or sit and relax that was not a church or a saloon. The library circulated over 10,700 books durring its first year. This building was used as a Fairbanks library until 1977.