Illinois Carnegie Libraries Multiple Property Submission

Illinois Carnegie Libraries MPS
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Buffalo Township Public Library in Polo, Illinois.
Location	Illinois, USA
Built	Various
Architect	Normand Smith Patton, Grant Miller, Paul O. Moratz, William A. Otis, Pond and Pond, John Grant Beadle, Louis Ward Claude and Edward F. Starck, Clifford Shopbell.
Architectural style	Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Arts & Crafts
MPS	MPL015 - Illinois Carnegie Libraries Multiple Property Submission
NRHP reference #	64500205
Added to NRHP	February 16, 1994

Illinois Carnegie Libraries Multiple Property Submission was a National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission in the U.S. state of Illinois, approved on February 16, 1994. The submission included a group of sixteen Illinois libraries whose construction was funded by early 20th century philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The sixteen libraries were all added to the National Register of Historic Places between 1978 and 2002.

Carnegie, a business mogul, donated roughly $40,000,000 to library construction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Disseminated in the form of grants, Illinois received 106 such grants, the third highest total nationwide. In addition to the 106 community libraries Carnegie helped create he also provided funding for four state university libraries in Illinois. The Carnegie Library, in Illinois and nationwide, represents a significant period in the history of the American public library, which is part of the very social history that threads its way through the American past. Collectively the buildings of the Illinois Carnegie Library Multiple Property Submission come from a time period when Americans were beginning to demand the library as a necessary public institution and the library was altering the way society functioned. Taxes were instituted in towns across the country in order to support public libraries and, perhaps much less noticeable, library design began to change to meet differing needs. In all 1,679 libraries were built with the help of Carnegie funding.

Between the years 1886 and 1919 Andrew Carnegie gave away $56 million worldwide in library benefactions. There are two main divisions within those years, often described as "retail" and "wholesale," based upon the number of libraries constructed. For the first ten years of his philanthropy Carnegie donated around $1,000,000 which benefacted only six communities in the United States and constructed a total of 14 library buildings. Those years, 1886-1896 are described as the "retail" years. The retail philanthropy was limited to five Pennsylvania communities, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Johnstown, Braddock and Homestead, and one town in Iowa, Fairfield.