Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1901 — NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR DECATUR, ILL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR DECATUR, ILL.

The design for the new public library given to Decatur, 111., by Andrew Carnegie has just been completed. The building will cost $60,000, the amount of the gift. It will be located on a lot 190 feet square already ornamented with thirty-year-old hard maple trees. The structure will be of classical design, ninety-eight by sixty-four feet in size. On the first floor will be a large general delivery room, reference room, children’s room, large public reading room, study rooms, offices

for the cataloguer and librarian, toilet rooms and so on. On the second floor will be a classroom, a directors’ room, a room for a medical library and a large space to be used in the future. In the basement will be the heating plant, staffrooms, • storeroom and bicycle room. The edifice will have room for 50.000 books. The library now has 20,000 books. The work of construction is under the direction of the library board, of which William J. Quinlan is president and Mrs. Mary Barnes secretary.