October 3, 1885 – On this date the Chicago Daily Tribune reports on a
letter that the Chief Librarian of the city has sent to the Chairman of the
Council Committee on Buildings. The
letter provides detail about the location of the city’s first library, housed
in a converted water tank on Dearborn Street, just east of today's Rookery
Building. Mr. Poole, the librarian,
urges the temporary removal of the library to the new City Hall, just up the
street on Washington Boulevard, citing the grave risk of the city’s entire
collection of books being destroyed by fire.
The present location of the library “are overcrowded already, many
valuable books being in consequence stored in out-of-the-way corners for want
of a piece to put them.” The library has
four floors and no elevator. On the
fourth floor is a newspaper reading room of 3,292 square feet, a periodical
reading room with 2,307 square feet, and a room for patent books and documents
continuing 2,503 square feet. The floor below
contains the main collection in 16,324 square feet of space. Since the collection of the library is
increasing by 10,000 volumes a year and the threat of fire can not be ignored
in a city that burned to the ground just 14 years earlier, Librarian Poole was
a little distressed that he had not received an answer from Alderman Mahony, to
whom he had directed the letter. The book room of the "water tank library" can be seen in the engraving above.
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