It's not that I'm as proud of your library: there seem to be an inordinate number of different cards of it about.
Part of
Library Postcards: Civic Pride in a Lost America.
Illinois communities tended to know a good thing when they
saw it: hence, many accepted Carnegie funding. The 105 state
Carnegie grant total does not include college libraries
(North Central College, Naperville; Monmouth College, Galesburg).
As I approach finding cards of all the cities,
pages are divided into:
A - D,
E - G,
H - M,
N - R, and
S - Z.
Rockford has its own page.
The web site
is a little different. However, it's quite easy to navigate.
Its history page is bereft of pictures, but is quite well written by
authors Amy Anson, Kevin Becker, and Amanda Endicott.
To summarize,
the 1903 Carnegie building first needed renovation in the 1950s. During this
period, a 1956 fire essentially gutted the building. It reopened in 1957.
1964 saw an addition, as did 1989.
(L) Curt Teich American-Art Blue-sky card.
(R) The early C.T. American Art card was mailed in 1924.
I adore this little fairy castle of a Carnegie Library.
Card produced by C.U. Williams, Photoette, Bloomington, Ill. and
mailed in 1910. See a more recent picture on the city's
web site.
See a more attractive vintage post card on the library's
web site.
Incidentally, El Paso was the last Illinois community to adopt
direct dial telephones.
1907 - 1975
According to Evanston Public Library Lore on its web site, a $50,000 Carnegie grant built this building.
What they don't tell you is that it took many years of wrangling to get it done. In 1903, they got one grant. A 1906 grant request was turned down. The building was opened in 1907. The grant was renewed in 1914, and more construction took place in 1915. (Here, the Bials are unclear. I bet there are some missing EPL records.) After all that hassle, they moved in 1960.
(L, above) Pioneer card from unknown publisher.
(R, above) V.O. Hammon tinted postcard.
(L) Another V.O. Hammon card, mailed in 1917.
(R) RPPC found in a box of random buildings. This is a library building I recognized straight off.
1906 grant: still in use, but with altered windows.
I seem to remember this building from the late 1970s. Even then, it needed a little TLC for its curb appeal.
(L) A.A. Vandervoort postcard, locally produced.
(R) W.C. Pine Co. card with strange white blotch above the steps, and an unusual
typescript caption.
1903 - 1990
This is the only Illinois Carnegie library building I know of which was
condemned.
On their recently upgraded web site,
Flora
Public Library titles this page, 'A Brief History of the Flora
Public Library.'
Read the rules section. I like 7 - 10 the best.
1901 Carnegie grant. Replaced in 2004. Still in limbo. The library's featured photo of the new building looks like Ed Ruscha had a hand in it.
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| John Cook, Freeport historian, lists libraries built by Patton and Miller, including Carnegie Libraries in Belvidere (Ida Public), Polo (Buffalo Twp.), Freeport, and Warren. The Freeport Library was the oldest Carnegie library still in use in Illinois at the time it was replaced. | ||
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The German card (R) appears to have been made by the same printer who published the Decatur card and several others on these pages. | |
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(R) 'We are very proud of our library' It's not that I'm as proud of your library: there seem to be an inordinate number of different cards of it about. |
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| Color-View brand Dexter Press card, printed in 1962. | |
Dr. Hannah Nichols Schmaling served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Whiteside County Medical Society, donated the Library's
land, and endowed it with the funds that enabled the acquisition of the 1908 Carnegie grant. It opened in 1909, and is still in use.
Full history
on the library's site.
(L) Pretty card with tinted sky. It even bears the address: 10th Ave. and 5th St., Fulton, Ill.
(R) Lovely card in a vertical format.
(L, below) What an fulminatingly ugly card!
Worse yet, A.D. Mitchell used it to advertise his
second-rate cards:
A.D. Mitchell & Son
Fulton, Illinois
Have the largest and most up-to-date line in the city. Local views, birthday greetings, etc. Colored cards like this one - Main Street, School, Library and Bridge - each (one) ............1¢
Federal-style adaptation of the Carnegie plan.
Library's site
contains an excellently written history of its existence. I would gladly pay 10 cents for a
catalogue of holdings!
Supposedly, the Peabody, Kansas Carnegie Library shared the same plans with this building, but it isn't an obvious relationship. Maybe fraternal, not identical twins?
(L) No card attribution, but with an entire back, it dates between the 1905 grant and
the 1907 demise of the entire back postcard.
(R) Tremendous interior scene by Curt Teich (C.T. Photochrom) for E.W. Kempter of
Galena. Notice that it had gas
lighting.*
Dibs on the square table next to the window.
Apparently the books were shelved according to color.
*Despite the fact that so many of these buildings did not have electricity early on, I don't know of any fires or explosions caused by gas.
Built 1901-2, the Galesburg Carnegie Library was lost to fire on May 9, 1958.
It's an Italianate building with some odd little portholes on the roofline.
The library's web site
called the building Romanesque. I don't. You may. Moot point. It burnt.
Frieze reads:
Faithfully reproduced as the card (L) below reads.
(R) Suhling Co. of Chicago published this meh self-framed card.
(L) Blame the E.C. Kropp Co. for the bad spellings.
(R) Card dated Oct. 1908, but never mailed.
The city post office (the red brick building) is a bonus on the S.H.
Knox postcard.
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| Monochrome card featuring the original structure. The 1929 addition seems to postdate this card. |
C.R. Childs card, ca. 1907. | Curt Teich postcard, restruck for Wm. Mc Meekin. | Art View card, printed in Cambridge, Illinois. |
1907 grant: 1909 dedication. Galva's Carnegie building has an interesting blend of styles, perhaps a combination of Tudor and Prairie (see also the Geneva card below) after expansion.
The library's site has a fairly thorough history.
1907 grant: still in use.
Geneva,
St. Charles, and
Batavia essentially form a single community.
St. Charles' library was also a Carnegie building, albeit more of a
'typical' one. Geneva's was a very attractive Tudor-style limestone building.
It looks a little like a ski lodge to me.
One of Illinois' last grants: 1915. Replaced in 2005.
(L) Curt Teich 'Photo-finish' card. The code, 115289, does not seem to correlate
with the known coding scheme published by the Lake County Forest Preserves'
Curt Teich Postcard Archives.
Probably not visible to the reader are
the stained glass upper window panes.
(R) Curt Teich 'Blue-Sky' card, also coded 115289.
1912-1995
Ca. 1925, 1961, and 1980 additions. I think Glen Ellyn really tried to save the Carnegie building, but by the 1950s,
the handwriting was on the wall (and on the Library's web site history today). First the Library encouraged the cardholders to take home armloads of
books, then another referendum was passed, then a citizen donated money for its reference room.
After all that remodeling and renovation, was it still a classic Carnegie building?
Photo postcard with a circled B on front, and DOPS in the stamp box.
1911 grant.
There are no reported postcards featuring only the Grayville
Carnegie building. The enlargement on the left is about as good as it gets here. This card was
mailed, to Canada, in 1913.
I haven't found any significant information about this building online, but it
still includes 'Carnegie' in its name.
The library is part of the Shawnee Library System.
(L) The library, resembling that of Adrian, Michigan,
is in the upper right corner.
(R) An I. Stern tinted card, with photo attribution to R.W. Couzet, an evident typo.
Whether the library still exists in this building is the question. It's still referred to as the Greenup Carnegie Library on some sites, but the library's own web page shows a building without any of the frills shown on these cards. Maybe they were able to blandify the Carnegie building, but I don't know for certain.
The cards themselves might make an interesting story. Attributed to R.W. Conzet, Chemist, Conzet himself is featured on the view below the oval. He appears to have been involved with water analysis.
On the National Registry of Historic Places.
Similar to Fairbury's Dominy Library, and to Sycamore's and to Paxton's libraries.
A 1905 Carnegie grant made this building possible,
and it appears from city
and library
websites that it hasn't been altered one bit. It contains the Bond Co. Historical
Society and a noteable genealogical collection.
Obviously, microfilm is their friend.
At this point, the only way to see the non-linked libraries is to visit the pertinent IHPA site.
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All text is under copyright by the author. Cards are presented for scholarly study: most are significantly older than 1928. You may link, and even deep-link to its pages, but you may not claim any part as your own nor link to individual images.
©2003 - 2012 Judy Aulik
Carnegie libraries divided on 30 January 2007.
Quartered and updated on 13 December 2008.
Last update: 19 May 2012.