Building History

1952 was a big year for Arlington Heights. Dial phones were installed, a new railroad depot was built and on June 28, 1952, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library opened the doors of a new building on Belmont Ave. to the public.^[1] Previously housed in Effie and Lucy Shepard’s home at 310 N. Dunton Ave., then at North School, and then to the Peoples Bank building and village hall, this was the first building that the library had built for its own use.^[2]

The residents of Arlington Heights wanted to build something that would honor the servicepeople who sacrificed so much during World War II. As money was raised, a community council with members from various local organizations was formed. Before Arlington Heights settled on a new library building, several other war memorial ideas were debated including a new hospital, playgrounds, lights for an athletic field at Recreation Park and more.^[3] On October 14, 1946, the community council held its final vote and the vision of a memorial library was secured. On October 18, 1946, residents read the front-page headline, “Library adopted as war memorial,” in the Daily Herald.^[4]

The architect, Walter Kroeber, planned for a brick and stone building. As described in a Daily Herald article from January 20, 1950: “The building will be 93 feet wide and 46 feet deep. The center of the building will be 15 feet high, which will permit erection of double stacks in the rear portion. Reading rooms will be on each side of the entrance hall, one for exclusive use of children. Space will be provided for an office, workroom and public and private toilets. A basement will be under the center portion of the building.”^[5] To pay for the new building, a bond for $80,000 needed to be passed by Arlington Heights voters.^[6] The Arlington Heights Women’s Club went to work to increase support. 580 residents of 3,500 eligible voters came to have a say in the future funding of the memorial library and 351 of those 580 people voted yes.^[7]

According to Margery Frisbie in This Bookish Inclination: The Story of The Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 1887-1987, the Belmont land was purchased from Emma Kosmin for $5,000. Her two lots were desired because they were originally owned by the Dunton family.^[8] Local businesses put in work to build the Belmont building, which included, “cement work to Edwin H. Meyer, painting and decorating to Arlington Home Decorators, electrical wiring and fixtures to Dreyer Electric, plumbing and sewer work to Raymond Wilke [and the] landscaping contract was let to H. Klopp.”^[9]

The library interior was modern and new with “a charging desk and high swivel chair, round tables for the children’s room, twenty-four reading chairs and rectangular tables for the adult readers, a magazine stand, a dictionary stand, and a Davidson book dolly [...] from Marshall Field’s,” and $800 of new books were purchased.^[10] Inside the library, “adult books went to the south wing, children’s to the north wing, the reference books into the stacks behind the charging desk.” Florence Kule, the librarian, had an office in the southwest corner, “with her new typewriter desk and swivel chair from Marshall Field’s.”^[11]

This building was referred to as the Memorial Library in dedication of the 437 Arlington Heights people who served in World War II.^[12] Of those 437 people, there were “417 men, 16 women, one captain and three doctors.” Arlington Heights mourned 41 people who were killed in service.^[13]

The population of Arlington Heights continued to grow as new folks moved to town and families boomed. Several years after the opening of the Belmont building, it became clear that Arlington Heights needed a larger library building to support its growing community. By 1956, the librarians moved collections around to accommodate more materials. The basement storage was cleared out and Miss Edith Lindsey, the children’s librarian, converted part of the basement area into a children’s section.^[14]

Based on architect Walter Kroeber’s plans, the Belmont building was built to house 30,000 books, a “standard library size for a city of 10,000 to 12,000 persons.”^[15] In 1965, a public hearing was held to address constructing a new library building and the Arlington Heights Memorial Library’s current building at 500 N. Dunton Ave. was dedicated on June 30, 1968.^[16]

When the Library moved to the new building in June of 1968, they sold the Belmont Building to Arlington Heights School District 25^[17]. The school district used part of the building for their Diagnostic Learning Center, a program for Special Education Students^[18]. The downstairs of the building was used by High School District 214 to house the Instructional Resource Center^[19]. Both the Diagnostic Learning Center and the Instructional Resource Center were in the building until early 1971^[20]. 

In 1971, the school district leased the building to TCI cable company, which had an office there until 1994^[21]. The Arlington Heights Teen Center opened in the building in 1996 and was in the building until 2010^[22].

The building sat vacant until 2021 when the new Library Makerplace opened its doors.^[23]