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The building that houses the Oregon City Library is scheduled to be demolished in the coming months.

The demolition will make way for a  Safeway grocery store in Danielson’s Hilltop Mall, a strip mall where the library is located in southern Oregon City.

“We lost our lease at our current location,” said Maureen Cole, Oregon City Public Library director. “The owner is hoping to redevelop this whole mall. In the meantime, we are working to purchase a former school building, which is proceeding, but it won’t be remodeled anytime soon.”

The library will move into the historic Carnegie Center, one of 2,000 library buildings constructed throughout the U.S. between 1883 and 1929 with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Oregon City’s library was built in 1912 and operated as a library until 1995. It is currently maintained by Oregon City Parks and Recreation.

Located at 606 John Adams St., the 6,000-square-foot building will house Oregon City’s library beginning June 21 for an undetermined time. Because the Carnegie Center is so small, the library will put part of its collection into storage while negotiations continue for the city to purchase the Eastham School to house the library.

Cole says the library plans to stay at the Carnegie Center for the next couple of years.

“Our current facility is 13,000 square feet, and the Carnegie is 6,000 square feet,” Cole said. “Some of the collections will be put in storage, but fortunately our users have access to other libraries in Clackamas County.”