History of the Berwyn Public Library
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History of the Berwyn Public Library by Eileen Pech i Dedicated to the professional staff and volunteer trustees of the Berwyn Public Library © 2008 Eileen Pech ii Contents Introduction Before Berwyn ....................................................................... 1 1890s Private Lending Library ........................................................3 1920s Starting Anew for the Children ............................................7 Library Goes Public .............................................................. 9 Ely Era Begins ...................................................................... 10 “Temporary” Quarters..........................................................11 1930s Branching Out..................................................................... 15 First City‐Library Dispute................................................... 17 "Mayor ‘Fires’ Dunning"..................................................... 20 400 Protest at City Hall.......................................................22 1940s Library Finds Home in City Hall ........................................27 Library Responds to War Needs........................................ 29 1950s Changing Expectations .......................................................33 Centralization Proposed .....................................................36 OK to Build—But Where? ..................................................38 Mirror Image Design........................................................... 41 Goodbye, Ely—Hello, Belon ...............................................42 Referendum Impediments..................................................43 Polivka Named Director Number Three............................45 1960s Referendum Wins on Second Try ......................................47 New Branch Construction ................................................. 49 Dream Fulfilled, Dr. Hall Retires........................................50 iii 1970s Space Shuffle....................................................................... 53 City‐Library in Second Dispute..........................................54 Board Seeks Closure ........................................................... 57 “Mayor ‘Fires’ Board President” ..........................................61 Dispute Resolved Out of Court..........................................65 Board Gets Back to Business ..............................................66 Branches “Below Standard”................................................68 1980s Board’s Bright Hopes Dim...................................................71 Who Controls Purse Strings? ............................................. 73 “Library Board Members Quit” .......................................... 75 Central Branch Closes ....................................................... 77 Korbel Named Fourth Director..........................................80 Council Says “No” to Technology ......................................82 District Status Explored......................................................86 Reconstruct or Build Anew?...............................................89 Budget Shortfall Threatens Service....................................93 Heartened by Uncertainty..................................................96 Resignation Rocks Library..................................................98 Koppe Becomes Fifth Director..........................................100 1990s Growth Pleads for New Facility.........................................105 Building Hopes Center on Park .......................................107 Referendum Postponed.................................................... 109 Residents Question Plans...................................................112 Referendum Rejected ........................................................ 114 Relationships Unravel........................................................ 116 Lofgren Named Director Number Six...............................120 “Referendum Goes Down in Flames”................................ 123 The CSA Solution...............................................................124 Grant Aids Reconstruction................................................126 Thank‐you for Donors.......................................................129 New Chapter on Unity.......................................................130 iv 2000s New Century—New Director ............................................135 Space Reconfigurations......................................................137 Video Fee Controversy...................................................... 138 Strategizing the Future ..................................................... 140 Expanding Technology ..................................................... 142 City‐Library Issues Resurface ........................................... 144 Central Library Marks Tenth Year.................................... 146 Acknowledgments.............................................................. 151 Historical Resources...........................................................152 Appendix I: Berwyn Library Location Time Line .............153 Appendix II: Berwyn Library Pioneers ............................. 156 Appendix III: Berwyn Library Directors........................... 158 v Introduction Before Berwyn Before there was a City of Berwyn, there was a Berwyn Library. By the time Berwyn residents voted in 1901 to separate from the Township of Cicero and become a township in their own right, the Berwyn Lending Library was already seven years old. The present site of the Berwyn Public Library, 2701 S. Harlem Avenue, is part of a tract of land that once comprised the Ritzma family farm and extended from Cermak Road to Ogden Avenue and Harlem Avenue in Berwyn to Pulaski Road in Chicago. (Photo courtesy of Warren Ritzma) 1 1890s Private Lending Library “Berwyn was still very young when a group of early residents decided the little community needed a library,” noted the Berwyn Beacon newspaper in a recap of the institution’s early history. The year was 1894, and Berwyn was a village of scattered houses, street corner gas lamps, and wooden sidewalks that after a heavy rain were liable to move over a few feet because the walks rested on stilts. That spring, a handful of Berwyn’s leading ladies gathered in the home of Dr. Arthur MacNeal, founder of MacNeal Hospital. Determined to create a “book shelter” for their city, they elected as their president Mrs. Charles (Carrie Gregory) Piper,* the wife of Berwyn’s co-founder Charles E. Piper and the first president of the Berwyn Woman’s Club. Mrs. M. M. Hitchcock was elected secretary and Mrs. William R. Porter, treasurer. The women sponsored “entertainments” to raise money to buy books and began lending them out from the Piper family home at 3427 Oak Park Avenue. The little library soon became so popular that the women persuaded Mr. Francis M. Lackey to provide room for a small rental library in his dry goods store on the southwest corner of Windsor Avenue and Elliott Avenue (now known as Grove Avenue). *EDITOR’S NOTE: Because of changes over the years in the style of addressing women, this history will use a woman’s first name wherever possible. However, direct quotes from period documents will use the style of that time with the first name in parentheses. 3 History of the Berwyn Public Library Within a few years, interest grew to the point where Mr. Lackey no longer could afford the space to house the books or the time to check them in and out of circulation. The women asked permission from the District 100 Board of Education to turn the books over to Emerson School. In the home of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur MacNeal, the leading ladies of Berwyn organize the city’s first book shelter in 1894. The house was later demolished and the site at 33rd Street and Oak Park Avenue in now occupied by the hospital that bears Dr. MacNeal’s name. (Photo courtesy of MacNeal Hospital) The home of Berwyn co‐ founder Charles E. Piper, 3427 Oak Park Avenue, is the site from which books initially were distributed by the city’s first private lending library circa 1894. (Photo courtesy of Mayor Thomas Shaughnessy) Charles E. Piper, co‐ founder of Berwyn, and his wife, Carrie Gregory Piper, co‐founder of Berwyn’s first privately operated book shelter. (Photos courtesy of the Berwyn Beacon, now a copyright of the Berwyn Historical Society) 4 1890s 1890s Bestsellers Last of the Mohicans • James Fennimore Cooper Lorna Doone • R. D. Blackmore House of Seven Gables • Nathaniel Hawthorne Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren 1900s Bestsellers To Have and to Hold • Mary Johnston The Pit: A Story of Chicago • Frank Norris Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm • Kate Douglas Evans House of Mirth • Edith Wharton The Jungle • Upton Sinclair 1910s Bestsellers Their Yesterdays • Harold Bell Wright Seventeen • Booth Tarkington Mr. Britling Sees It Through • H. G. Wells The U. P. Trail • Zane Grey The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Ibanez V. Blasco *EDITOR’S NOTE: Check succeeding decades for top-selling books according to Wikipedia’s Publisher’s Weekly list. 5 1920s Starting Anew for the Children The desire for a Berwyn library refused to die, and in 1921, a time when the city was growing rapidly, the Berwyn Woman’s Club raised $100 to start a library for children. Approximately one year later, in the Community Club House cloakroom in the south wing of the Masonic Temple at 3112 Oak Park Avenue, Miss Frances Fox began offering twice-weekly “quiet afternoons” for children. This activity soon expanded into an entire