Historic Downtown Library

The Young Men’s Literary Association offered privately-funded subscription library services  in Rock Island from 1865 to 1872. They turned over their collection, furnishings, and librarian to help start the first Rock Island Public Library!

Miss Ellen Gale started work in libraries at just 15 years old in 1868, as the private librarian for the Young Men’s Literary Association of Rock Island. In 1872, she would become the first director of the newly formed Rock Island Public Library, a job she would hold for 65 years until her retirement in 1937. She may still hold the longevity record for municipal employees in Illinois. Photos: Ellen Gale, circa 1900s, 1937

Miss Gale was born  in Oswego County, NY in 1853. She moved with her parents to Rock Island in 1857, and then to St. Joseph, Mo, where she was educated in private schools. Her parents moved back to Rock Island in 1868. On August 31, 1948, Miss Gale passed away at age 95, at the Happy Haven Rest Home in Silvis, Illinois.

Carved list of 1903 board of trustees, marble entryway, Downtown (Main) Library. Charles L Walker, pres; John W. Welch, sec; Charles J. Larkin; Louis Kohn; Walter Johnson; Claude W. Foss; Alexander deSoland; Joseph H. Kerr; and Charles Fiebig.

Rock Island’s Main Reading Room, c. 1903-1904.

The original Main Library layout included one large room on the main floor, divided between a reading room on the north, and a reference section and children’s department on the south. The east end held closed book stacks with a librarian’s desk (shown here.) 

The second floor included the director’s office, an art room, unfinished assembly room, cloak room, two meeting rooms, and a central rotunda with a skylight that illuminated the circulation desk below.

Side view of what would be the Reference Room side of the original Main Library.

One of the Downtown Library’s distinctive features is a frieze (a decorative engraved band around the top of the building.) It contains the names of authors who were considered significant when it was approved in September 1902. The 12 authors who appear on the sides of the building are: 

• West side: Homer, Longfellow, Emerson, and Virgil 
• North side: Hugo, Shakespeare, and Goethe
• South side: Burns, Tegner, and Dante, and 
• East side: Hawthorne and Bancroft

Most of these names are classic authors. Bancroft is for George Bancroft, American historian involved in the “Grand Excursion: of 1854. Esaias Tegner was a 19th century Swedish poet, who would have been very familiar to Augustana College faculty and alumni.

Though the Rock Island Public Library first opened to the public on November 25, 1872, it operated out of rented spaces for about the first 30 years. The cornerstone of the downtown building was laid in 1901, with completion of the building in 1903. The Main (now Downtown) Library opened for business on December 15, 1903.

Designed by Rock Island firm Drack and Kerns (architect of record, L.M. Drack), the building’s design is classical Ionic, with Italian Renaissance finishes. Local builders Collins Brothers constructed the building out of Berea Sandstone, from a quarry in North Amherst, Ohio, with Carthage marble for the base and steps. Over time, the original gray sandstone has naturally oxidized into a warm tan.

Though many assume the Downtown Library is a Carnegie-funded building, the original capital to build the 1903 Main Library came from former Rock Island lumber businessman Frederick Weyerhauser. Weyerhauser’s generosity began with a $50,000 advance to start construction, and a donation of $10,000 for furnishings and books. He later agreed to allow the library to use his furniture gift for construction, and pledged additional monies later. The total cost of the new building eventually totalled $90,448.20, of which Weyerhaeuser gave $17,869.32.

The original Main Library featured ornamental trim, removed at some point prior to 1946. In 1954, the attic was insulated, and a skylight and two light wells were enclosed. Historic picture postcard and historic photo, Rock Island Public Library collection.

When the Main Library opened, the Children’s area was located on the south side of the first floor. In 1910, a separate Children’s Department was added to the second floor of the main library, in what is now the Community Room.

Original furnishings of the separate Children’s Department on the second floor of the Downtown Library. It was located in what is now the Community Room, and offered a fireplace and ample natural light. Sometime around 1955, the Children’s Department was moved to the Ground Floor. Photo date unknown, possibly 1930s-1940s. 

The library also operated branches in Rock Island schools: Washington School (December 1919); Audubon School (October 1923); and Franklin School (September 1925.) Other small branches were located in Edison Junior High and Longfellow.

The original wooden doors and leaded transom window of the Main Library, circa 1925. The Library Board voted to replace these doors with glass and aluminum doors in 1964. New windows were installed throughout the entire building in November 1973. 

Bookmobile service to area schools began in 1960, phasing out in-school branches. This first bookmobile service to area schools lasted until December 1990. 

The original bookmobile was replaced with this newer vehicle, shown here at a school stop  Photo date unknown.

From the late 1970s to Dec. 30, 1982, the library also ran a small branch at the Martin Luther King Center. The bookmobile is shown here with a puppet show performance, likely part of the library’s summer reading program. Photo date unknown. 

In 1957, a small room in a City firehouse created the 30/31 Branch at 3059 30th Street. The branch operated through December 2019, when it was closed as part of a plan to eventually add a larger branch on 30th Street. (See Watts-Midtown page.)

In 1974, another firehouse addition created the 1,500 square feet Southwest Branch at 9010 Ridgewood Road. An expansion in 2000 created its current appearance and size of 5,373 square feet.  Southwest has operated with Milan-Blackhawk Area Public Library District funding support since 1989.

Bookmobile service returned in January 2020 with a new outreach and materials vehicle known as Library2Go, shown here at a ribbon-cutting at Earl Hanson Elementary. Significant funding to purchase the used vehicle came from the Rock Island Public Library Foundation.