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The Library has come a long way in the
course of its history, thanks in large part to
Andrew
Carnegie. 30
after its
founding in 1874,
the library moved
from the Village
Hall basement to the Waterworks Building, and
then into two
rooms in the
Village Hall. In 1904
Andrew
Carnegie responded
to a petition from the Library Board for
the construction of
Maywood’s
first library
building.
Mr.
Carnegie contributed
$12,500 for the erection of the
building after the Village
guaranteed
$1250.00 annually for
the
maintenance.
This amount was not
sufficient for the
heating,
lighting and furnishing of the building, so
Mr. E.T.
Hughes, Chairman of the
Building
committee,
secured
the issue
of $4500.00 in liberty bonds to provide for all the
necessary
equipment. The
Maywood Public
Library
was officially
dedicated in April 1905. On March 31, 1906, the newly
erected
Carnegie library building was officially open to
patrons.
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At that time the
library’s book collection comprised 4648 volumes
with a
circulation of 19,016
books a year and 883 registered
patrons.
As the library began to grow, Maywood opened a
branch in
Garfield
School on Friday, November 14,1924. On August
18,
1928 a new
branch
was opened on 17th Avenue in a real
estate office. This grew
so rapidly that on November
10th
a store was
rented on 17th Avenue
where the branch
operated successfully for 68 years.
Eventually the
Carnegie building erected in 1905 became inadequate.
Members of the Library Board,
namely: Walter E. Swanson,
President,
Mrs. Robert Van Pelt, Mrs. Leo Shelley, Robert Dewar and
Mrs. T.C.
Clark, with the assistance of the Village
Board,
made an application to
the Governor for a
PWA grant to
assist in the financing of the remodeling
of the library
building. Mr. Van
Gunten drew
up the plans. The
Board
received confirmation of the acceptance of the project
in October 1936
after
considerable
correspondence with
Illinois legislators and many
interviews with Mr. Van Gunten
during
his temporary residence in
Washington.
Upon completion
of the project, for the first time in its
history,
Maywood had
an entire building for library purposes. The
building
included an attractive children’s
room; a school
room for
duplicate books which were to be sent to the school
classrooms; an
intermediate
room for young people; a
cataloging room and board room
on the 2nd floor; a reading and
reference
room on the 1st
floor with space
for additional
books, magazines and newspapers; and a community
room
for
organizational meetings and community
projects.
The cost of the
remodeling was approximately
$27,000.
The building housed 20,000
books for 7600 registered patrons
with a circulation of 114,500
books and periodicals.
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In 1960 an inside
renovation job was funded by a philanthropic
Maywoodian.
The estate of Fred
Volkmann, former library board
member,
donated $95,000 to the library. In 1970 the Library had
more renovations.
The Maywood Library
District was created by an election in 1991 in order
to ensure
future funding
for the Library. In 1998 a new
8 million-
dollar
annex was dedicated with special facilities for
children
on the 2nd floor and
an adult reference section with
ample
computer facilities on the 3rd floor,
and offices,
fiction, videotapes and magazines on the 1st floor. The new
facility was designed by
Ross,
Barney & Jankowski
architects and won the
1999 Distinguished Building Award from
the American Institute
of Architects
Chicago. The old
Carnegie Library was restored to its original condition with
meeting rooms,
a Local History/Board room as well
as
administrative offices.
The new annex and the Carnegie
building
together comprised 43,000 square
feet of space.
The Library opened a
new computer center on the first floor for the public in
March
2003 after receiving
$23,000 through the State
Commerce and
Community Affairs grant secured through a member initiative by
7th District
State Representative, Karen Yarbrough,
of
Maywood. The computer center
is a wireless
network of 11
computers with Internet access for the public and
is staffed
all hours
the Library is open.
Currently the Library
circulates more 150,000 items per year, an increase of
50%.
Videotapes have
increased from 2400 to nearly
double that
number.
The number of computers has increased from three
machines to more than 25,
providing access for more than
2000
uses per month.
Over the years, the
Library Board of Trustees has worked hard to move the
Library
ahead and the staff
has worked hard to
implement the will of
the Board
and the needs of the Maywood community. In the
past, the citizens of
Maywood have put their faith
and tax
dollars into a Library which has grown
steadily
through the
years and which has continued to serve them well. In the
words
of Rose Mosley, former Library
Board President and Board
trustee for
more than 15 years, the Library Board has carried
out its
mission as
given it by
the citizens of Maywood:
"People wanted a world class library and that is what
they got!"
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