Next Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023, the Friends of the Pekin Public Library will gather at the library to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The celebration will run from 4 to 6 p.m. that evening, and will feature refreshments, live music, library tours, and door prizes (with the drawing taking place at 5:30 p.m.
The Friends have also asked me to give a presentation during their anniversary event about the history of the Friends of the Library. Here at “From the History Room,” we previously recalled some of the early history of the Friends in a post from June 24, 2021, as an installment of the series on the Pekin Public Library’s history during the library’s 125th anniversary year. Following is a reposting of that article, now augmented with additional photographs and documents selected from an old scrapbook containing items from the first ten years of the Friends of the Library’s history.
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It was during a meeting of interested Pekin residents held at the library on Sept. 11, 1973, that it was decided to organize a community auxiliary foundation to support the library’s operations. At the meeting, a steering committee was appointed to establish the foundation. The committee members, as reported in the Oct. 19, 1973 edition of the Pekin Daily Times, were Clarence Woelfle, George Udry, Mrs. George Stolley, Helen Wainman, Library Trustee Vera Dille, and then-Library Director Richard Peck.
The Sept. 11 meeting also determined that the Friends of the Pekin Public Library would have four goals: 1) to focus public attention on the library; 2) to promote wider knowledge and use of the library and its services; 3) to support and cooperate with library staff in developing library services and facilities; and 4) to encourage gifts and memorials for the library.
The Friends of the Library held their first regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, 1973, in the Hospitality Room of American Savings and Loan Association, 300 S. Fourth St. At that meeting, which was chaired by Clarence Woelfle, the Friends approved by-laws and voted for officers.
During the first year of its operation, the Friends’ officers were Mrs. Beverly Grimes, vice-president, George Udry, treasurer, and Miss Helen Wainman, secretary, with the office of president being unoccupied for part of that year. Vera Dille was then the library board’s representative to the Friends of the Library, while the directors of the Friends were Robert Culshaw, Mrs. Margaret Frings, and John Velde Jr. Membership dues were set at just $1 a year for individuals, $5 a year for organizations, and $25 a year for patron-level membership. (The dues schedule is different now, but still starts at $1 a year for an individual membership.)
Today the most visible activity of the Friends of the Library is the book sale room adjacent to the library’s entrance. Proceeds from book sales are donated by the Friends to the Pekin Public Library.
During its first years, however, the most notable and significant action of the Friends of the Pekin Public Library was the successful effort to save the Pekin Carnegie library’s “Grandfather” and “Grandmother” clocks, which were put up for auction in 1974 along with most of the Carnegie library’s furnishings and décor.
Library Director Peck’s decision to include the clocks in the auction was controversial, eliciting a large number of complaints and letters to the editor from Pekin residents who cherished the way the clocks, and especially the Bavarian “Grandfather” clock’s chimes, had enhanced the library’s beauty. But Peck defended their sale, saying Pekinites wanted more books rather than clocks.
On Thursday evening, Aug. 29, 1974, a small group of Pekin’s citizenry met in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed and Fran Zobel, 1321 Royal Ave., to organize a “Save the Clocks” effort. The others in attendance were Charlotte Jibben, John Walker, Carol Bagley, Doraline Lippi, Chic and Sue Renner, and Library Trustee Vera Dille. During the meeting, Dille informed them of the Friends of the Pekin Public Library and advised them to join the Friends as a “Save the Clocks” committee. They followed Dille’s advice, and then set to work on their plans to ensure that the clocks would remain in Pekin and that at least one of them would adorn the new library facility.
The auction – which was held after the library’s collection of books had been moved to the new facility – took place only two days later, Aug. 31, 1974, and was overseen by local auctioneer Mike Fahnders. The auction itself netted the library $11,500. As we noted in a previous column, during the auction the Grandfather clock (donated to the library circa 1938-39) was purchased for $4,000 by George Udry on behalf of the Friends, and the Grandmother clock (donated to the library in 1904) was purchased for $1,650 by Chic Renner on behalf of the Civic Chorus.
The Grandfather clock was then restored and placed in the Children’s Department of the new library. The Grandmother clock was destined for a proposed Tazewell Historical Museum. When that plan foundered a few years later, the Pekin Civic Chorus and Pekin Woman’s Club donated the clock back to the library on Oct. 15, 1979, whereupon it was placed in the Adult Services Department.
Through the work and generosity of the Friends of the Pekin Public Library, the library’s patrons can still enjoy the clocks, which not only tell the time but form a link back through time to the library’s earlier days, and the days when Pekin’s Carnegie library served the community.
Another successful project of the Friends of the Library during the 1970s was the preservation of the decorative stained glass windows from the 1902-03 Pekin Carnegie library. The windows were carefully removed from the old library prior to demolition, and the Friends had the windows framed and encased in boxes that were wired to allow backlighting of the stained glass. The Carnegie library windows were then hung for permanent display in the library lobby, where they remained until the 2014-15 library remodel and expansion, when they were re-hung in the Local History Room — another link to the library’s past.
