Facing City Park stands one of downtown Streator’s grandest buildings, the Carnegie-funded Streator Public Library. Its story involves a ladies’ association, a friendship between a coal-town founder and a steel magnate, and a mural restoration finished in 2023. For more Streator landmarks, return to our History of Streator.
Libraries Without a Home
Streator’s first library, run by the Streator Library Association, lasted only from 1871 to 1875. In 1876 the Ladies Library Association took over. It moved around for years before settling in the Plumb Opera House, owned by Colonel Ralph Plumb.
A Letter to Andrew Carnegie
Plumb was a friend of Andrew Carnegie. When Carnegie began funding public library buildings across the country, Plumb asked him for a grant for Streator, and Carnegie gave $35,000. Construction began in 1902, and the library opened on January 31, 1903. Plumb died that April. Our page on Colonel Ralph Plumb has more about him.
Classical Revival Design
Architects Patton & Miller designed the building in the Classical Revival style. Tall columns frame the entrance under a pediment, and a decorative terra cotta cornice wraps the building beneath a brick parapet. A dome crowns the roof. Inside, a two-story rotunda has columns around the first floor and murals on the second.
The Rotunda Murals
The rotunda murals were painted in 1905 by Gustav Fuchs and include portraits of William Shakespeare, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Socrates. A 1945 fire covered them in soot, and they stayed dark for decades. Parma Restoration cleaned and restored the paintings, and the work was finished in September 2023.
National Register Listing
The library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1996. It is one of a few Streator buildings on the Register, along with the two homes described on our historic homes page.
A Place of Self-Education
The library meant a lot to people who had little formal schooling. Labor leader Reuben Soderstrom traveled alone to Streator at about age 12 to work on the trolley lines and in the glass factories, and he got much of his education on the job, first as a printer’s devil at a local newspaper. In 2017 the Reuben G. Soderstrom Foundation made a donation to the library, linking his name to it permanently.
Visiting Today
The library at 130 S. Park Street is still Streator’s public library. Visitors can see the restored rotunda and the Poundstone Civil War flag, carried by a Streator-area soldier at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1863 (see our Civil War page). Outside, a 2025 steel silhouette shows Clyde Tombaugh stargazing.
A Long Road to a Permanent Home
Before 1903, Streator’s library associations spent more than 30 years moving books between borrowed rooms. The Carnegie building was the first permanent home the town’s library ever had, and it has stayed in the same building for more than 120 years, through the mining era, the glass boom and the decades since.
More Than a Building
Carnegie libraries were meant to give working people free access to books. More than a century later, Streator’s still does that, in a building whose dome and columns show what the town thought of learning in 1903.
Related Streator History
- Streator History Overview
- Colonel Ralph Plumb: Streator's Founder and First Mayor
- Streator's National Register Landmarks: Historic Homes and Buildings
- Reuben G. Soderstrom: Streator's Champion of Illinois Labor
Sources
- Streator Public Library – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator_Public_Library
- Streator, Illinois – Wikipedia (Museums and historical buildings). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streator,_Illinois
- Streator Public Art – library murals and silhouettes. https://www.streatorpublicart.com/art
- Reuben G. Soderstrom – Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_G._Soderstrom
- Streator Public Art – Tour of Honor (Poundstone Flag). https://www.streatorpublicart.com/tourofhonor
