Carnegie Museum & Archives:
Official Keeper of Roseville's History Since 1983

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Remembering Leonard "Duke" Davis

Co-Founder of the Roseville Historical Society in 1983, Leonard "Duke" Davis provided invaluable contributions to our community. Mr. Davis passed away on October 10th, 2014. At his request, no funeral services were held - and in true Duke Davis form he requested donations be made in his name to the Roseville Historical Society instead. The obituary published in the Auburn Journal is available to read online. 

About

The Roseville Historical Society

In the early 1980s the old Carnegie Library building was slated for the wrecking ball and the land the building stood upon was to be turned into a parking lot. But then, something extraordinary happened. During the City Council meeting where members were scheduled to vote on the building’s destruction, a relative of the pioneer McRae family unexpectedly spoke to the group. It seemed, she said, that since the city was no longer going to use the land that her family donated for library purposes, that she would be expecting to take her land back. The McRae family had indeed donated the land and it was with a caveat; the land, with the Carnegie Library built upon it, was to be used as a library in perpetuity.

The original deed was verified and the old building was saved. But it needed restoration and a purpose. The good citizens of Roseville banded together and formed “The Roseville Historical Society” with the purpose of preserving and protecting the history of Roseville. Together with the city, funds were raised for restoration and the venerable old building was once again a library but with the new focus of educating people about the history of Roseville. In effect, it became the “Carnegie Library Museum.”

In 2012 the Roseville Historical Society celebrated the venerable 100-year-old building that houses the history of a wonderful city. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and it is a modern day testament to what can be accomplished when we come together to ensure our history is preserved.

About this website

Following the mission of the Roseville Historical Society, our primary goal with this website is to preserve and promote the history of our city. Secondarily, we aim for those efforts to educate and inspire our community. Production of these pages is the result of combined efforts of many people, some who actively participated over the past few months and others whose photographs, text or other works were produced years, or even more than a century ago. 

Roseville historians deserve the most credit for their contributions of researching, recording, interpreting and preserving our collective history. Most noteably, Leonard "Duke" Davis, whose many books lay a solid foundation for describing the people, places and events from which Roseville was built. The recent contributions of our historian, Phoebe Astill maintain the same passion and integrity for preserving our history. Ms. Astill is a life-long resident of Roseville, descended from a pioneer family and is a past curator of the Carnegie Museum.

Content for this site was pulled from the archives of the Roseville Historical Society, published works of Leonard "Duke" Davis, materials supplied by the Maidu Museum and Historic Site, public domain images, and recent color photographs by Greg Dowden. Most text contained in this site has been drawn from the combined efforts of Phoebe Astill, Christina Richter, Duke Davis and Greg Dowden, with final text editing by Christina Richter.

The guiding principle of our effort is accurate reporting of historical facts. However, errors sometimes occur and we encourage the community to notify us immediately if any errors are noted.

 We appreciate interaction with the community whose stories we do our best to capture.