Flossmoor Public Library

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HISTORY OF THE FLOSSMOOR LIBRARY

In the late 1940s a group of citizens organized the first public library service in Flossmoor. The "Bookshelf" opened in June, 1947 in the Field House east of the Flossmoor IC station. Community volunteers staffed the Bookshelf which, by the fall of 1947, was open for four hours on Tuesdays and two hours all other weekdays and Saturdays. By December 1947, the Bookshelf owned 3,000 books collected from local donations and had 800 books on loan from the Illinois State Library. In the fall/winter of 1947-1948, volunteers moved the Bookshelf to the show room window of the Broderick Building on Flossmoor Road and then returned it to the Field House in May 1948. The collection was then moved to the Flossmoor Public School, Leavitt Avenue, where it remained until September 1949.

There was a brief hiatus of library service when Leavitt Avenue school enrollment increased and the library space was needed for school functions. A multiple-community library district of the southern third of Cook County was discussed and voted down in 1952, and in 1953 a proposal for a Rich Township library was defeated. It was apparent that Flossmoor, like other municipalities, wanted its own library. In 1953, a group known as the Friends of the Flossmoor Library organized (1) a slate of six candidates for a library board and (2) a proposal for a maximum library tax of not more than one mill per year, or ten dollars per year on an assessed valuation of $10,000. On June 30, 1953, citizens approved the establishment of the Flossmoor Library by a vote of 203 to 126.

The primary concerns of the new library board were an appropriate building site and adequate library staffing. Some consideration was given to locating the library in the Illinois Central station; however, the Library Board failed to gain approval by the Village Board for a special referendum to get approval of a tax to raise money for its purchase. In April 1954, the Library Board of Trustees met with the chairman of the Homewood Library Board. It was agreed that separate library buildings would be more useful to the two villages than a joint library but that the two villages might consider sharing certain services.

By 1954, the library board had hired Marie Gaskill as head librarian and had secured a five-year lease for the storefront at 1042 Sterling in the Civic Center Building across from the train station. The Flossmoor Public Library opened there on December 5, 1954, with a Sunday tea.

During the next five years, the Board worked to acquire land and raise funds for the future library building. In 1959, gifts from the Friends and seven Flossmoor residents provided for the future library site on School Street. Voters approved $145,000 in 20-year bonds for construction of the library building by a 64-vote margin on November 3, 1959. Construction of the first Flossmoor Public Library building began in July of 1960, and the long-awaited library building at 2801 School Street opened on February 5, 1961. The library was one of ten American public libraries selected for architectural honors in the first library buildings award program sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association.

In the 1960's the library provided exhibitions, art lectures, chamber music recitals, folk-singing for boys and girls, creative drama, and movies. However, by 1970 the village population had jumped from 4,624 to 7,589 in a decade and the library building space was far too small. The Village of Flossmoor observed its 50th anniversary in 1974. That year, the Flossmoor Library and neighboring Olympia Fields (which had no library service) discussed forming a merger into an Olympia Fields-Flossmoor Library District. However, this did not come to pass, and Olympia Fields eventually contracted with the Park Forest Public Library for service.

In 1975 residents outlined a five-year plan for the library. When the Village decided to build a new municipal building, the library board began laying the groundwork to convert the old Village Hall/Police and Fire Station building for use as a public library. For a time the library existed both in the School Street building and part of the former Village Hall, while decisions were made about the library's future. Eventually, the Village Hall was gently renovated and opened as the current library with a total building area of 10,500 square feet in 1983.

Excerpts from A History of Library Service to the Village of Flossmoor by Deb Robertson

Flossmoor Public Library I 1000 Sterling Avenue I Flossmoor, Illinois 60422 I 708.798.3600