Eureka's 1902 Carnegie Library now houses a regional art museum — and a ghost named Ralph who has been documented since 1972.
636 F St, Eureka, CA 95501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Adults $5; seniors 65+, military, students with ID $2; children 17 and under free; first Saturday each month free for all.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic two-story Classical Revival brick building with elevator access to all levels and accessible restrooms on the lower level.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1902 · Carnegie Library · National Register of Historic Places · Classical Revival Architecture · Humboldt County Cultural History
The Carnegie Free Library was built in 1902 at 636 F Street in Eureka, designed by architects Knowles Evans and B.C. Tarver in the Classical Revival style. The exterior combines red brick with locally quarried Mad River granite, framed by two-story solid redwood columns. A tile mosaic floor in the domed rotunda was a defining feature of the original interior, though the dome was later removed during structural modifications.
The city secured the building through a $20,000 Carnegie library grant approved in 1901 — part of Andrew Carnegie's national library philanthropy program. When contractor Ambrose Foster's costs exceeded the grant, city trustees sought additional funding that Carnegie ultimately declined to provide. The library nevertheless opened and served Eureka as its main public library for seven decades, until 1972.
By the mid-1990s the building had been vacant long enough that demolition was seriously considered. The Humboldt Arts Council acquired the property for one dollar, launched a capital campaign that raised $1.5 million, and began restoration in 1999. The building reopened January 1, 2000, as the Morris Graves Museum of Art — named for the Pacific Northwest painter who donated a portion of his personal collection and authorized use of his name before his death in 2001. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, recognized for both its Carnegie Library provenance and its largely intact Classical Revival architecture.
Sources
The ghost called Ralph entered the building's documented record in 1972, when a former library employee named Claudia felt something tug at the hem of her sweater while searching for magazines in the basement. No one was behind her. After she described the experience to colleagues, others began reporting their own: footsteps crossing empty floors, a hand on a shoulder that turned up no one, doors propped open swinging shut on calm days.
An employee eventually conducted an informal séance using a Ouija board and was told the spirit's name was Ralph. The name stuck. Later, a classroom on one of the building's upper floors was found with 'Ralph' written in blue chalk — a detail that got picked up by the North Coast Journal in a 2002 feature that collected accounts from multiple former library workers.
Among the more specific incidents: an elderly couple touring the building's restoration found what appeared to be a person lying on empty shelving, 'stiff as a board,' who was gone when they looked back; lights in a locked classroom switched themselves back on repeatedly after staff turned them off. Current museum staff describe Ralph as a settled, benign presence — 'a good-luck charm' is a phrase that has appeared in staff accounts — and the building's paranormal reputation has become a minor piece of the museum's identity without displacing its primary function as a regional art space.
Notable Entities
Explore the museum's rotating exhibitions and permanent collection of works by Morris Graves and regional North Coast artists in the 1902 Carnegie Library building where staff have documented unexplained phenomena since 1972.
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