The former Carnegie Library officially will be known as a place Langston Hughes frequented as a child.

About 20 people attended the plaque dedication ceremony Saturday at the Lawrence Arts Center, site of the former library, 200 W. Ninth St.

“To me, the Carnegie Library is one of the powerful symbols of Lawrence,” Lawrence Mayor Mike Rundle said.

Hughes, a poet, novelist and playwright, lived a few blocks from the library with his grandmother, Mary Leary Langston, during the early 1900s.

The plaque, which will be on the building’s front, reads in part: “… When I was in the second grade, my grandmother took me to Lawrence to raise me. And I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome. … Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world of books.” The quote is from Hughes’ first autobiography, “The Big Sea.”

Lawrence resident Hobart Jackson, above, discussed the text on the plaque Saturday at the arts center.

Clark Coan, Lawrence, helped initiate the plaque idea and proposed some of the Hughes centennial events.