Right in front of you, you’ll spot a sturdy limestone building with big vertical windows, tucked behind leafy trees-just look past the branches and those stone walls will let you know you’ve found the library.
Now, take a moment here under the rustling leaves and imagine the year is 1887. Highland Park’s townsfolk gather with fluttering petitions, gathering enough steam to convince the city council to create a library for everyone. With a whopping $260 set aside each year, books started to parade in and out of this beloved institution by 1888. But that was just the start-by 1903, the library was bursting at the seams, and the remarkable Highland Park Woman’s Club made an ambitious move. They wrote to the legendary Andrew Carnegie (yes, the library magnate himself!) and, in a plot twist worthy of a novel, he replied with a promise: $10,000 if the city could provide a building lot. Mr. Arthur Thomson of Massachusetts came flying in like a hero from a distant chapter, handing over a piece of land on Laurel Avenue, and a new era began!
As waves of readers poured in and the town’s population more than doubled, it was clear that the beloved Carnegie building just couldn’t keep up. Enter the roaring twenties, and a tax levy was cooked up to fund a bigger, better home for Highland Park’s growing book-loving crowd. In 1931, a magnificent Gothic limestone library by the architects Holmes and Flinn opened its doors, every corner echoing with curiosity and laughter. Fast forward and you’ll spot the Children’s Wing, added in 1960 by Bertram Weber, and the sleek south addition in 1976-proof the library likes a good makeover. Today, thanks to all this growth, this place is a hive for thousands of stories, visits, and library cards… and the occasional late fee mystery!
