A favorite historic focal point for many small idyllic Wisconsin towns is their Carnegie Library. During the early years of the 20th century 63 free public libraries were built throughout Wisconsin using funding from Andrew Carnegie. Few remain in use a libraries today, but many have been preserved and are often museums or historical society headquarters. Sadly at least 14 been razed. Locals may not realize that Stevens Point once had its own Carnegie library downtown since the land is now a blacktopped commercial driveway and nothing remains to signify it ever existed. As with several other of Stevens Point’s prominent historic buildings, the public library met the fate of the wrecking ball through poor planning and decision making over 50 years ago.
The history of the public library in Stevens Point reaches as far back as 1853 when the editor of the only newspaper in town at the time, The Wisconsin Pineries, made a call out for a lending library on the front page of the paper. By the late 1860s a Library Association, founded from early reading circles, began to hold dances, dinners, and bake sales to fund the city’s growing need for reading materials. One of the earliest public lending libraries was kept inside the White School which was located on the corner of Arlington Place and Water Street, where the Lincoln Center stands today.
In 1874 the association had raised enough money to rent a room above HD McCulloch’s Drug Store on the corner of Main and 3rd Streets. This was the first set of rooms devoted solely to the purpose of a public lending library furnished with proper shelving and space for patrons to sit and enjoy the books they could borrow.
However, book borrowing came at a cost. Only those that could afford the $3 yearly fee, could enjoy borrowing privileges. With an average yearly income of around $400 for laborers in the lumber and paper industries in Wisconsin, library membership might not have been a priority, but the need was certainly still there. Later, in 1885, after a free library reading room was set up in a local ice cream shop, the Library Association dropped the fee to more reasonable $1 a year which would be $30.64 today.
As the library collection grew and reading popularity continued, space became limited, and the books were moved to the high school building on corner of Clark and Church Street in 1887. Tragically half of the collection was destroyed when the building caught fire on a cold night in February of 1892. The remainder were salvaged and stored for a bit, before finding new shelves again.
After the fire the collection found its way to new shelving above the popular Taylor’s Drugstore on Strongs Avenue. Well known by locals, the space was eventually acknowledged as the public library and listed in the 1901 city directory as the Public Library with Librarian Catlin at their service. Officially known as the city’s first paid librarian, Miss Frances Catlin, called Fanny, was paid $16 monthly to manage the library. When Fanny left the position in 1898, her sister Molly took her place, and Mrs. Mary Dunegan joined as Assistant Librarian.
Miss Catlin and Mrs. Dunegan not only ran the small city library above Taylor’s, but also traveled across Portage County to rural communities setting up “Traveling Libraries” which consisted of small book collections. The pair placed the small collections of books in homes or businesses for a period allowing locals to browse and borrow easily without having to come to Stevens Point to use the main library. Even with the traveling libraries and the new home above the drugstore, Stevens Point still had a great need for a dedicated free public library building.
Read Part 1 here / Read part 2 here Read Part 3 here / Read Part 4 here/ Read Part 5 here
This article ran in the Stevens Point City Times / Portage County Gazette February 14. 2014
Historic Stevens Point 