EDITOR’S NOTE: This is 10th in our 12-story road-trip series looking at the people and places along Illinois 1 — from Watseka to Paris.
RIDGE FARM — A few years ago, the Elwood District Carnegie Library was in pretty bad shape and its future was uncertain.
Jennie Sollars, current president of the library’s board, and her mother, Diane Dawson, who serves as treasurer, were among those tasked with saving the building.
“It hadn’t been maintained in 50 years,” Dawson said, adding that the only things that had been done included the ceilings in 2005 and some repairs to the roof in the 1970s.
To tackle all the needed projects, repairs and remodeling started in December 2023.
“It’s been gutted; this whole floor has been done. Just last year we remodeled,” Dawson said.
The almost 20 projects they’ve completed in the last two-and-a-half years include: new gutters; sanding, caulking and painting the outside windows and doors; a concrete pad for the first outdoor flagpole; new sheeting and roof over the children’s room; patching, sealing and painting the walls of the children’s room; a new south sidewalk; a new subfloor and carpet tiles in the main library; updating the internet wiring; and remodeling the main library with a new partial wall and relocating the bookshelves.
They also restored and refinished the original front desk, stabilized the front concrete steps, resealed the stairs and sidewalls, and installed a new metal roof.
This spring, they plan to repair the soffit on the north and east sides of the building. They also are trying to find a grant for their parking lot.
Dawson said their new board consists of “so many talented people” in addition to director Loretta Fagg, and they want to make sure the library continues to serve as a hub for the community.
The library is on Illinois 1, at 104 N. State St. in the center of the village of around 800.
According library board member and historian Jamie Robertson, the village was awarded an initial grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation in April 1909 in the amount of $9,000 (about $300,000 in today dollars). The land it was built on was originally purchased in May 1909 from T.E. Smith.
The five-room library was completed in 1910 for $12,000 (about $400,000 today). It features solid-oak woodwork with 14-foot-long beams and large pillars on the exterior.
Though Carnegie was a steel magnate who became one of the richest people in history, he grew up poor and spent a lot of time as a child in his local library. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away almost 90 percent of his fortune, or about $350 million (about $7 billion today) to charities, foundations and universities, including an initiative where he promised to build a library in any town that would provide a site and pledge to maintain the building.
More than 2,500 were built between 1883 and 1929, and the one in Ridge Farm is one of the smallest still in operation. It serves residents of the village and nearby Elwood Township, Olivet, Vermilion Grove, Indianola and other communities.
According to Robertson, the village’s original library was in the back of a jewelry store. Once it amassed more than 100 books, the ladies of the Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle realized they needed a bigger location, and member Anna C. Cole wrote to Carnegie about building one. The group played a major role in getting it built, including getting a tax levy passed to support it.
The library today is warm and inviting. There are sections to “Rediscover an Author” with many new patrons, a new-book section, an “Authors in Illinois” area, a children’s room and a big selection of audio books and movies.
Dawson said while the library only saw 20 or so patrons a month a few years ago, that monthly average is now near 150 patrons.
Fagg “has been phenomenal,” Dawson said, adding that she’s in the process of hiring a new assistant, and the board has been “fantastic” in getting things done.
“Everybody’s taken the ball and run,” she said. “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 noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays, noon to 7 p.m. Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.
With Vermilion County’s 200th anniversary and the United States’ 250th anniversary this year, the library is working with the village on banners, exhibits and activities as part of the celebration. The library celebrated its 215th anniversary last year.
Some future programming being planned includes a tea party for children, euchre club and movie nights. Dawson will also have a couple summer programs for professional organizing. That’s partially what she does for a living besides decorating.
In addition, the library goes out in the community. A technology grant allowed them to buy headsets, and they are taking those and audio books and large-print and other books to Ridge Farm residents, as well as to Chrisman and elsewhere, including nursing homes.
“So, that’s a delivery we offer for the community,” Dawson said. “It didn’t hurt Chrisman. They don’t have the audio.”
The library is seeing use from about 10 percent of the population right now, she said, “which is terrific.”
“We’ve got a lot of things we’re excited about,” she said.
