A Trip Through the Archives - Relive Our Centennial Celebration, 2007

Celebrate the past | Centennial Programs | Library Memories

Great Beginnings - A message from the Director

Sandra K. Norlin, Library Director

In February 1904, Dr. C.A. Earle received a discouraging letter from Andrew Carnegie’s personal secretary informing him that his request for a $5,000 gift to fund a public library was out of the question because Des Plaines was too small a community. Undaunted, but polite, Dr. Earle responded. He described Des Plaines as a rural village of ”largely foreign sturdy industrious people who are just learning the value of an education,” and, therefore, worthy of consideration. In response he received a form to fill out, but no encouragement. It took two years and several more letters, but at last Mr. Carnegie agreed.

In this community of 1,666 residents, a petition signed by 50 legal voters placed the question of a library tax on the ballot. On April 18, 1905, the vote was in favor, and the Village Board unanimously resolved to provide $500 per year every year thereafter to maintain the library. In 1907, with a $5,000 Carnegie grant and a promise of $500 per year, the library became one of many civic improvements -- new schools, parks, sewers, lights, gas -- to create a community that would, according to Dr. Earle, “stand without a peer among the villages to the northwest of Chicago.”

One hundred years later, we are indebted to Dr. Earle’s dream, his perseverance, his sense of community pride and his way with words. Since 1907, many men and women have come forward at the right time with their dreams for improving the Des Plaines Public Library and guiding it along the path of progress. We are now at a point in the library’s story where we look back with awe at the extraordinary efforts it took to get things started. And, we look forward with hope because we know that the good people of Des Plaines will fill the coming chapters with growth and excitement. The best stories always have great beginnings, don’t they?
 

Celebrate the past

Since its creation in 1907, the Des Plaines Public Library has occupied five sites. Four of them, including the current one, have been in downtown Des Plaines.

The original library was a Carnegie-funded building on the corner of Miner Street and Graceland Avenue. It was dedicated on October 5, 1907. There were 725 books and periodicals in both English and German. In 1936, the library moved into the Des Plaines State Bank building at the corner of Lee Street and Ellinwood Street while the new Municipal Building was being constructed.

The new WPA-funded 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.

On November 2, 1958, the library building at Thacker Street and Graceland Avenue was dedicated. The Colonial Williamsburg-style building was built to look like a single-story building, though there were actually three levels.

Selected as an anchor for downtown redevelopment, the current 82,000-square-foot library at 1501 Ellinwood Street was dedicated on September 24, 2000. Today, the library has over 300,000 items available and circulates more than 1 million items per year. More than half a million people visit the library each year. The library building is open 72 hours per week. Many library services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the Internet.

(Historical photos courtesy of Des Plaines History Center. Photo of current library by Les Boschke.)