History
In 1877, several of the men of the village of McLean met in Lemert’s Dry Good’s and Grocery Store with plans to organize and incorporate a subscription library. At that time, it had no regular source of income and depended mainly on the efforts of generosity of the townspeople.
On October 10, 1914, a meeting of the people of the village of McLean and the nearby area was held for the purpose of explaining that the Township would be taxed to aid the Mt. Hope Township Library. It was necessary therefore, to call an election to select the Trustees for the library.
On July 24, 1915, a fire destroyed the Colombian Hall where the library was maintained in one of the rooms. After the fire, the trustees decided to rent a room at the rear of the building that housed the barbershop to maintain the collection of books. All the records except a few handwritten notes were lost in the fire.
December 1, 1916 at the Trustee’s meeting, specifications were prepared for a library to be built in conjunction with the newly planned Community Hall to be erected on the northeast corner of the town square. The Library cost $5,000, and was funded by Winslow Barnes, Carl Aldrich and Mary McCormick. It was turned over to the Township. Mt. Hope Township Public Library was opened on Saturday, December 1, 1917 with Thelma VanNess Brun as the first librarian. In 1918, the library was open for 10 hours per week and the librarian was paid 15 cents per hour.
In March 1919, a vote was taken to increase the tax base from one-fifth mil to one-half mil. This allowed for the purchase of reference material for the growing library collection. The reading room was open two nights a week and was attracting young and old alike to read and study.
November 15, 1987 saw the 70th anniversary of the Library celebrated with an Open House. Over 100 guests attended. They toured the library and enjoyed the exhibits, which included the scrapbooks of the newspaper articles about the library. While cake and punch were enjoyed, the new microfilm reader was demonstrated and a 1914 map of McLean was studied.
In 1995, the Trustees embarked on a five-year building program. A building fund was started. In November, 2000 the library was awarded a $250,000 Live & Learn Construction Grant from the Illinois State Library. Groundbreaking for the new library building took place on May 12, 2001.
On Thursday, March 14, 2002 McLean’s eighty-five year old library closed for the last time.
The new 5700 square foot library opened on March 26, 2002.