Des Plaines Public Library

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Des Plaines Public Library is a public library serving the city of Des Plaines, Illinois.

[edit] History

The colorful history of the Des Plaines Public Library dates back to the mid-1890s when a public library was first proposed. The first vote, in 1896, was defeated 142 to 50. However, Dr. Clarence Earle and a group of progressive thinkers kept up their fight. In 1904, a subscription library called the Tabard Inn was established in F.C. Walton’s drugstore on Ellinwood Street in Des Plaines, Illinois. F.C. Walton himself ended up paying for most of the service. In April of 1905, the proposition to establish a Free Public Library finally carried by a majority vote. Prior to approval of the library proposition, Dr. Clarence A. Earle began carrying on correspondence with philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to convince him to fund the library building. Though Mr. Carnegie didn’t customarily aid in such small projects, he did eventually relent, providing a $5,000.00 construction grant. The first Library Board meeting was held on May 2, 1906, in the Village Hall located at the corner of Ellinwood and Lee Streets in Des Plaines, Illinois.

The first Des Plaines Public Library building was constructed on the corner of Miner Street and Graceland Avenue. It was dedicated on October 5, 1907. The library’s initial collection consisted of 725 books. Business hours were Tuesday and Saturday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Mrs. Sarah Weeks began her duties as the first librarian in September of 1907. She received a salary of $10.00 per month. She served as library administrator from 1907-1915.

The first library building served the residents of Des Plaines, Illinois for nearly 30 years. In 1936, the city council announced a plan to construct a new municipal building on the library site. The project received financing through the WPA. During construction of the new city hall and municipal building, the library took up residence on the first floor of the failed Des Plaines State Bank. Today the site is once again a bank, at the corner of Lee/Mannheim and Ellinwood Streets. The new Municipal Building was dedicated on June 29, 1937. The building housed the library in the west wing, City Hall in the center, and a fire station in the east wing. The library featured 7,000 books and 1,500 feet of shelving. The modern equipment included slant-top tables for the children, indirect lighting, and angled racks to display periodicals. Special features included an office for the librarian and headquarters for the Girl Scouts. In 1951 a children’s room was opened in the basement. With Des Plaines more than tripling in population between 1937 and 1958, the library outgrew its quarters at city hall.

In 1957, ground was broken for a new 16,000 square foot library at the corner of Thacker Street and Graceland Avenue. The Colonial Williamsburg-style building was dedicated on November 2, 1958. The municipal building that once housed the library, City Hall and fire station was demolished in the mid 1970s to make way for a new civic complex. However, the population of Des Plaines nearly doubled in the 1960s. Again, the library found itself short of space. A small addition to the library was built in 1970 to house the bookmobile and provide some staff office space. Construction of another addition, this one being 20,700 square feet, began in 1973. Its completion in 1974 resulted in a near doubling of the size of the library. On June 19, 1969, the library bookmobile began biweekly service to each of the city’s neighborhoods, in an effort to meet the needs of the constantly expanding population.

By 1990, the Colonial Williamsburg-style library could no longer meet the spatial or technological needs of the community. The bookmobile was replaced after nearly 20 years of service by a new Mobile Library. The Mobile Library makes over forty stops in its two week rotation. In addition to neighborhood stops, it visits preschools, elementary schools and the senior centers, so this new Mobile Library was crucial to providing much-needed community outreach. Then, in May of 1997, Library Board President John Burke met with Mayor Paul Jung to discuss the possibility of a new library becoming an anchor for the downtown redevelopment project. The City Council, the Library Board of Trustees, the Economic Development Commission, and the developer spent the next 18 months working out the details of making the new library a reality.

Ground was broken for the Plaines Town Center project on July 4, 1998. Ground was broken for the new library on April 15, 1999. The 82,000 square foot library building was designed by Lohan and Associates and constructed by Leopardo Construction. The approximate dimensions of the building are 152’-4” feet wide, 150’-8” feet deep, and 68 feet tall. The north face of the building features aluminum accent panels in Aged or Patina Copper with relief work representing open books. Within the bands, you will find Des Plaines Library spelled out in binary code. The library opened its doors to the public on August 14th, 2000, and the grand opening celebration took place September 24th, 2000. The current library is centrally located in the downtown area of Des Plaines, which has seen a regrowth in the past several years. The library is comprised of four floors and annually loans over one million items to library patrons. The library's collections hold over a quarter of a million books at any one time. The Des Plaines Public Library celebrated its Centennial anniversary in the year 2007, with a number of special events, promotions and exhibits.