To borrow an oft-used phrase, Carnegie borough put its money where its mouth is when Mayor Jim Pascoe presented a $5,000 check last week to the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall to help pay for an $8.6-million restoration of the 103-year-old facility.

The check helps secure a $500,000 challenge grant that an anonymous donor had pledged if the community could match it by Sept. 30.

Pascoe and other residents put forward $58,000 in last-minute donations to help the cause, despite setbacks from the massive flooding from Hurricane Ivan.

Thus far the library has raised a total of $2.4 million, including the challenge grant, $100,000 from Robinson-based Bayer Corp. and other donations, such as the one from the borough.

"Oddly enough, after the flood we had a surge of donations," Marjorie O'Brien, a member of the library's board of trustees, said.

O'Brien said the library was unaffected by the floods because of its position atop a hill. To her, the hilltop perch might also be symbolic -- she sees the library as a beacon for what it provides to Carnegie and its neighbors.

The library boasts 30,000 volumes and serves 36,000 patrons per year from Collier, Heidelberg, Oakdale, Pennsbury Village, Pittsburgh, Robinson, Rosslyn Farms, Scott and Thornburg.

Built in 1901 with a $93,000 endowment, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places; it also houses a lecture hall, gymnasium, dance studio and 780-seat music hall in addition to office and meeting space.

The music hall is modeled after the world-famous Carnegie Hall in New York City, and is home to three local performing arts companies.

Of the more than 2,500 Carnegie libraries in the world associated with Andrew Carnegie, the "Carnegie Carnegie" as it is called is the only library bearing Carnegie's first name.

The library is also home to a Civil War Room, which the Thomas Espy Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (local veterans of the Civil War) used until the mid-1930s to house their collection of flags, books, prints and relics.

When the post ceased operations, the Civil War Room was locked and left undisturbed for 50 years. Today, the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves, a Civil War re-enactment group, maintains and provides tours of the Civil War Room.

O'Brien said just as the library facilities have been an important part of Carnegie's past, they will continue to be a cornerstone of its future.

For example, in the flood aftermath, the concert hall was used for a large meeting of federal, state and local officials as well as 350 residents and small business owners.

"Carnegie is going to come back," O'Brien said. "It has been getting a little bit better every day."