Having enjoyable on Illinois 1 | Ridge Farm library rising once more for future generations | Native Information

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is tenth in our 12-story road-trip collection wanting on the folks and locations alongside Illinois 1 — from Watseka to Paris.

RIDGE FARM — A couple of years in the past, the Elwood District Carnegie Library was in fairly unhealthy form and its future was unsure.

Jennie Sollars, present president of the library’s board, and her mom, Diane Dawson, who serves as treasurer, had been amongst these tasked with saving the constructing.

“It hadn’t been maintained in 50 years,” Dawson mentioned, including that the one issues that had been carried out included the ceilings in 2005 and a few repairs to the roof within the Nineteen Seventies.

To deal with all of the wanted initiatives, repairs and transforming began in December 2023.

“It’s been gutted; this whole floor has been done. Just last year we remodeled,” Dawson mentioned.

The nearly 20 initiatives they’ve accomplished within the final two-and-a-half years embody: new gutters; sanding, caulking and portray the skin home windows and doorways; a concrete pad for the primary outside flagpole; new sheeting and roof over the youngsters’s room; patching, sealing and portray the partitions of the youngsters’s room; a brand new south sidewalk; a brand new subfloor and carpet tiles in the primary library; updating the web wiring; and transforming the primary library with a brand new partial wall and relocating the bookshelves.

They additionally restored and refinished the unique entrance desk, stabilized the entrance concrete steps, resealed the steps and sidewalls, and put in a brand new steel roof.

This spring, they plan to restore the soffit on the north and east sides of the constructing. They are also looking for a grant for his or her parking zone.

Dawson mentioned their new board consists of “so many talented people” along with director Loretta Fagg, they usually wish to make sure that the library continues to function a hub for the neighborhood.

The library is on Illinois 1, at 104 N. State St. within the middle of the village of round 800.

According library board member and historian Jamie Robertson, the village was awarded an preliminary grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation in April 1909 within the quantity of $9,000 (about $300,000 in at this time {dollars}). The land it was constructed on was initially bought in May 1909 from T.E. Smith.

The five-room library was accomplished in 1910 for $12,000 (about $400,000 at this time). It options solid-oak woodwork with 14-foot-long beams and enormous pillars on the outside.

Though Carnegie was a metal magnate who turned one of many richest folks in historical past, he grew up poor and spent a variety of time as a baby in his native library. During the final 18 years of his life, he gave away nearly 90 p.c of his fortune, or about $350 million (about $7 billion at this time) to charities, foundations and universities, together with an initiative the place he promised to construct a library in any city that would supply a web site and pledge to keep up the constructing.

More than 2,500 had been constructed between 1883 and 1929, and the one in Ridge Farm is without doubt one of the smallest nonetheless in operation. It serves residents of the village and close by Elwood Township, Olivet, Vermilion Grove, Indianola and different communities.

According to Robertson, the village’s unique library was at the back of a jewellery retailer. Once it amassed greater than 100 books, the women of the Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle realized they wanted a much bigger location, and member Anna C. Cole wrote to Carnegie about constructing one. The group performed a serious function in getting it constructed, together with getting a tax levy handed to assist it.

The library at this time is heat and welcoming. There are sections to “Rediscover an Author” with many new patrons, a new-book part, an “Authors in Illinois” space, a youngsters’s room and a wide array of audio books and films.

Dawson mentioned whereas the library solely noticed 20 or so patrons a month a number of years in the past, that month-to-month common is now close to 150 patrons.

Fagg “has been phenomenal,” Dawson mentioned, including that she’s within the strategy of hiring a brand new assistant, and the board has been “fantastic” in getting issues carried out.

“Everybody’s taken the ball and run,” she mentioned. “You couldn’t ask for a better group of women. We all have our things that we love about the library, and so, we’re bringing it together.”

The library is open from midday to six p.m. Tuesdays, midday to five p.m. Wednesdays, midday to 7 p.m. Fridays and midday to 4 p.m. Sundays.

With Vermilion County’s 2 hundredth anniversary and the United States’ 250th anniversary this yr, the library is working with the village on banners, reveals and actions as a part of the celebration. The library celebrated its 215th anniversary final yr.

Some future programming being deliberate features a tea celebration for kids, euchre membership and film nights. Dawson may even have a pair summer time applications for skilled organizing. That’s partially what she does for a dwelling apart from adorning.

In addition, the library goes out in the neighborhood. A know-how grant allowed them to purchase headsets, and they’re taking these and audio books and large-print and different books to Ridge Farm residents, in addition to to Chrisman and elsewhere, together with nursing houses.

“So, that’s a delivery we offer for the community,” Dawson mentioned. “It didn’t hurt Chrisman. They don’t have the audio.”

The library is seeing use from about 10 p.c of the inhabitants proper now, she mentioned, “which is terrific.”

“We’ve got a lot of things we’re excited about,” she mentioned.