History and Remembrance

The Library.

There it stood, in the 1930's, in the classic, pillared building besidethe old Y on South Oneida Street, across from Soldiers' Square.

There it was, through those tall doors that led to the lobby and itsfront-facing circulation desk presided over by smiling ladies with glassessometimes askew on their noses when they were "busy." Off tothe left, the children's room welcomed hordes of kids ... Just like today;its reading room was presiding over by a golden oak mantle and fireplacewhich made you think about curling up with "The Land of Oz" orKing Arthur and his court.

A whole generation of kids remembered the children's librarian, thenreferred to by their mothers as "dear" Miss Marcy ...MarcelineGrignon of the well-known family, builders and century-long occupants ofthe Grignon Mansion in Kaukauna.

The library, in short, is part of every Appletonian's life ... and thelives of thousands of other 'patrons' state-wide who, in the new high techinformation age, can contact its web site ... the first one establishedby a public library in the State of Wisconsin.

It goes beyond offering the latest in the Hardy Boys series or the newestDanielle Steele.

And it celebrates its 100^th birthday anniversary on September11, when a reception hosted by the Appleton Library Foundation and theCentennial Board Committee will invite the public to 'look back.' Hostsand hostesses will greet nostalgic visitors in 1890s period costume, theladies with late Victorian piled-up hair and fans and long rustling skirts,the gentlemen reflecting the gallantry of another time.

Flags will fly at the entrance, and a huge banner in the foyer willintroduce the centennial logo, predictably a black-and-white open bookwith big letters proclaiming '100 Years."

Centennial visitors will be invited to become a part of the AppletonPublic Library's history; they'll be asked to inscribe a special personalmemory in the library in a centennial scrapbook which, the library assumes,will be perused happily by patrons another century hence.

It all began in 1887 when a devotee of books, a cerebral and graciouslady, Elizabeth Jones, wife of prominent Appletonian George Jones and "father"of today's Jones Park. Elizabeth and her friends established the city'sfirst reading room, because books were important to her and she wantedto share the joy of a "book in hand" with "everybody."

At her own expense, Elizabeth Jones rented rooms over Pardee's GroceryStore at the corner of College Avenue and Morrison Street. Undoubtedlyfew friends dared say "no" when Elizabeth and her cohorts solicitedbook donations.

Inspired ... or prodded by the ladies in their lives .. the Young Men'sFree Reading Room group was formed to further the effort. Not surprisingly,George Jones was president of that association. Ultimately that group ...just a year later ... turned over its collection to the Young Men's ChristianAssociation (YMCA).

The new little library moved around a lot. In 1894, fire destroyed theearly reading room. No place to go, then ... until the Fall of 1896 whengroup of citizens headed by Dr. J.Lummis, and including Mrs. J. S. Reeve,A. M. Smith and Jones opened another reading room on Oneida Street. Moneywas short' that facility offered only newspapers and periodicals.

That wasn't good enough for the aficionados; they organized a 'booksocial' at which their friends were treated to refreshments in exchangeof a book donation. The Y added 400 or 500 volumes salvaged from the fire,and town book-o-philes continued to contribute.

Bur money was an on-going problem, so the little venture closed on May1, 1897. The Free Library Association offered to donate its collectionto the City of Appleton on condition that the city organize a library underexisting state law.

After some hesitation, the city council said, in effect, okay, and openedcity council quarters on the second floor of the Peterson-Rehbein MeatMarket at 106 West College Avenue, offering space there, too, for a libraryreading room and book room.

That official confirmation took place on August 4, 1897. The Rev. AdolphusA. Drown was placed in charge ... the first librarian. Since the city hadn'tallocated funds to support the fledgling library, the old association raised$940.55 and urged citizens to donate a book each. Before long, the citygot the message and approved a half-mil tax to support the library.

The first library board, headed by ...not surprisingly ... George W.Jones, also included the Rev. W. J. Fitzmaurice, vice president; Dr. J.T. Reeve, secretary; F. S. Bradford, W. E. Barron, Henry Kreiss, GustaveKeller, F. J. Harwood and Carrie E. Morgan, ex officio member.

The rest of the story is history, culminating late in the 20^thCentury with the 82,000 square foot edifice which now welcomes hundredsof visitors every day. Located at the north end of the block bounded byWashington, Franklin, North Oneida and North Appleton Streets, the sitewhich had been occupied for generations by "old" Lincoln gradeschool, the redstone Romanesque style building remembered by a few survivingLincoln-ites. That was the building, of course which subsequently becameCity Hall.

But there were lots of steps in between.

That long history, starting with the quarters over the meat market,turns up statistics which offer startling contrasts with the present. Openingon September 1, 1897, the first publicly owned little institution withina few months was circulating some 60 books a day. Today, in a typical month,between 70,000 and 80,000 materials are checked out.

That's progress.

Progress is, of course predicated on people; in the history of the Appletonlibrary, that's abundantly clear, from the ladies who hatched the ideain the first place to the present. Significantly, of the 11 librarianswho have guided the institution's life, seven were women. It's "Marianthe Librarian" all over again. Present directory Terry Dawson, (himselfa native Appletonian and Appleton High School graduate) cites, with professionalrespect and admiration, the first in that list following the Rev. Mr. Drown,Miss Agnes Lucy Dwight, who served from 1898 to 1919. Ms. Dwight "trained"as a librarian at the Library School of the Armour Institute of Technology.She was a pro.

In Appleton, traditionally, women in high places have not been unusual;Miss Morgan, who served on that first small library board, was one of thefirst female superintendents of school in the state, and obviously a "first"in Appleton. The present Harris Street school building which had startedlife as Appleton High School in the 19-teens became, of course, the CarrieE. Morgan building in her honor.

Thus it isn't surprising that, over the years, the eleven librariansincluded those seven ladies.

Who were the, the ladies who knew the Dewey Decimal System by heartand called you when your name came up on the reserve list for "GoneWith the Wind?" Ruth McCullough succeeded Miss Dwight, serving from1913 to 1920,; Florence Day, 1920 to 1934, Nancy B. Thomas, 1934-1944;Doris M. Call, 1944-1946; Margie Sornson Malmberg, 1946-1949; Edith AnnRechygl, 1949-1961.

Gordon Bebeau succeeded the long lie of women librarians, serving from1961-1979; Jerome Pennington was in charge from 1980 to 1996; and Dawsonhas been in the director's office since last year.

The longest tenure was Bebeau's, but pioneer Miss Dwight was not farbehind. An elderly Post-Crescent clipping in typical of its timetiny, microscopic print is the oldest surviving story of the library'searly history ... written by her. It runs column after column, and it'sa treasured memento, endlessly photo-copied.

Appleton loved its library, doubling and re-doubling its circulationyear after year, along with the burgeoning of the collection. Those factorsinevitable dictated the next step; finding more space, example: by theend of the year, the collection numbered 3,500 items and the circulationtotaled more than 21,958 items.

Again, the YMCA stepped in, offering to deed to the city land just northof its building ... the Tudor-style "old" Y, on the northwestcorner of South Oneida and West Lawrence Streets, facing Soldiers' Square.(It's unlikely that many present-day Appletonians remember that once thatwas "Market Square," before entrepreneur and philanthropist A.W. Priest, then Owen of the historic Hearthstone Mansion, commissionedand gave to the city the sculpture of the Civil War soldier that gracesits west end.)

The Y's condition was that the city build a public library edifice within18 months.

The predictable squabble over funding and location ensured .. so whatelse is new, when it comes to locating of a municipal facility: city hall,library, high school, elementary school, performing arts center, parkingramp?

After the textbook round of court injunctions and lawsuits, Appletonbuilt its first municipal building since its official birth in 1857: theclassically designed, imposing edifice at 121 South Oneida Street. Thelibrary occupied the spacious first floor; city hall, the second.

Scores of present-day "seniors" remember running up the broadsteps, after parking their bikes, bursting into the wide, airy lobby dominatedby the circulation desk, library card in hand, ready to check out the latestNancy Drew tome or an Augusta Huill Seaman young girl mystery ... or maybeto use the World Book to write a "theme" (probably copied verbatim).The reference ladies always were patiently helpful; Miss Mary De Jongewas among them, infinitely helpful when it came to sniffing out the originof ancient Cyprus.

Eventually, itself becoming cramped for space, city hall had to uprootitself, this time to old Lincoln School, site of the present modern libraryat Franklin and Appleton Streets, on the north end of the block boundedon the south by Washington and the west by Oneida. The post-war expansionof elementary school buildings made possible the closing of the K through6 edifice. (Veteran Post-Crescent city hall reporters remember ploddingup the stairs on the west or east ends of the building to the second flooroffice of Mayor John Goodland, lounging behind his immense polished deskwith no papers on it, along with the know-all Miss Evelyn, switchboardoperator on the main floor, and beloved City Clerk Eddie Sager holdingforth in the first floor southeast corner. Actually his domain includedpart of the old kindergarten space.

The upheavals for the library weren't over, even with the second floorspace next to the Y. More renovation was required in 1954 to conform tostate codes, and presently new library services evolved ... a teen room,a micro-film collection, a record collection and a highly touted circulatingcollection of art prints. (You could have a Cezanne look-alike to hangover the sofa 'til you got affluent enough to buy 'real' art.

Twenty years later the space crunch was worst than ever as the bookcollection continued to grow. New standards of community service had tobe met ... inter-library connections, the looming of the computer age andincreased demands for service.

A new building? Again, the oft-repeated question: Where? A suggestion:Why not move into the recently vacated old AAL building at the corner ofWest College and North Superior Street? The Aid Association for Lutheranswas newly at home in its spacious and sprawling quarters on North BallardRoad. The idea made sense ... except to the folks who couldn't imaginebeginning their days downtown without stopping for coffee at old Walgreen's... the reports starting their daily beats, the contract bridge addictsendlessly replaying last night's "boards" competitions.

A city-wide referendum knocked down the AAL site proposal, backed by,among others, FOAL, the supportive Friends of the Appleton Library. Votersapproved construction of a new building ... the present one ... at a costof roughly four million dollars. Address: 225 North Oneida Street, in theformer Lincoln School/City Hall location.

Down with the old; up with the new. City Hall moved to the southeastcorner of the same block, former home of the old Wisconsin-Michigan PowerCompany ... site soon, of course to become green space and additional parkingfor the new library.

Off went city hall again, this time to spacious and ultra-modern facilitiesin the old Prange building, now, grandly, City Center.

Obviously, the fates of city hall and library are forever linked inAppleton history.

On June 1, 1981, Mary Dorothy Johnson dedicated the new building ona bright noon hour, visitors standing and watching and eager to "getin."

Mayor Johnson's remarks were a challenge and a promise. "I dedicatethis building to those who seek truth, to those who seek value and knowledgeand to those who are edified by the world of ideas."

People oooed and ah'd at the imposing, almost unbelievably welcomingentrance, the beautiful and, in town, unparalleded atrium. Two storieshigh, the trees and planting continue the outside for a refreshing ...even inspiring ... way into those ideas and bits of knowledge May Johnsonpredicated.

The new structure more than tripled the previous space, upped from 20,000to 70,000 square feet. In the first few months, daily visitors ranged upto 3,000. A commodious community room on the lower level accommodated ...and still does ... the now traditional "book 'n bite" sessions,along with book reviews, appearances by local and from "away"writers, as well as being available as community groups' meeting space.

Old technology was scuttled and the new dominated ... a new on-linecirculation system, compact discs, videos, CD ROMS. Example: Internet connection.(But you can still call up the reference desk and find out who won theNational League pennant in 1971 and who the first mayor of Appleton wasand where do you find out about what movies won Academy Awards in 1955.

Further renovation, completed in 1995, added 17 per cent more space,better access for persons with disabilities, 20 per cent more seating space,doubled children's program space, small group study rooms.

But the sense, the feel of the old libraries remain, patrons say. Casein point: dozens of feet of shelf space are reserved for the murder mysteryaddicts; the sci fi fans (who number among them director Dawson himself,who admits he has a personal collection of about 2,000). The ladies givento the romance novels are accommodated, as always. Moreover, you probablycan still pick up the aforementioned "Gone With the Wind," Sensationof the late 1930's; its original retail price, by the way, was $3.95.

Dedicated since Day 1 to community service, APL continues to offer otherthan "just" books, reference services, community outreach, children'sprograms.

The institution always has been in the forefront of Wisconsin PublieLibraries in the area of the new and different. Example: as far back as1904 Sunday hours were added to accommodate workers whose only free timeit was. A year later the assembling of bibliographies was innovated forclubs and other organizations. (Libraries are educators, of course; booklife isn't all the Barbara Cartland romance movement.) Teachers were encouragedearly on to share lesson plans with the library so that the library couldbe "ready."

'Way back in 1905 librarians went into classrooms at old Ryan High Schoolto teach students how to use library facilities and services.

Hooking up its first phones in 1920 linked APL not only to its fact-huntingpatrons, but offered a link to the Milwaukee and UW-Madison libraries aswell. In that year, library staffers spent 406 hours answering 583 referencequestions. (They must have been tough ones.) By 1946, 646 were answeredin just a month. Today reference and children's librarians answer a mind-boggling179,500 reference queries. That's roughly a question for every minute thebuilding's open.

The litany of services going back a hundred years is overwhelming andresponsive to community ... even national ... needs. War-time book drivesfor armed service personnel were conducted; small rotating book collectionswere assembled for large employers and drug stores in nearby small towns;neighborhood "branches" in junior high buildings were available;book services were set up for hospital patients.

Those were the service techniques of the past; they're different, now;they've grown up, but the outreach effort is the same: service to the home-bound,the blind. Add to these the book reviews, the film festivals, classes inInternet use, the library newsletter "Fine Print" and you'vejust scratched the surface.

The children's department was organized in 1921; a staff was hired;kid-size furniture was purchased and placed invitingly, in that old children'sroom facing a sunny south in the long-ago South Oneida Street building.Children's story hours have been a part of library life since 1918; a thennew high tech service for the youngsters was offered in 1945 when the Saturdaymorning story hour was broadcast over radio station WHBY.

The family, school and day care providers relationships continue, andgrows; in the centennial summer just past, 4,053 kids were enrolled inthe vacation time reading program appropriately titled "Zap Into thePast."

The supporting organization FOAL (Friends of the Appleton Library) backsthe library and its services every foot of the way; organized in 1975,it was a powerhouse in 1979, paving the way for the referendum vote thatresulted in the new library building. Note: Never throw an old book away;FOAL conducts a mammoth book sale yearly by way of additional support.

And then there's the Appleton Library Foundation, born in 1989, to offeran "edge of excellence" possible beyond public funding. Its achievements?Proceeds from the endowment fund have funded speakers and programs plusimprovement in collections and technology. Its special campaign in 1996funded purchase of the old city hall building across the parking lot anddevelopment into the soon-to-be-completed green space and additional parking.The foundation then deeded it back to the city.

Dawson, who has been on the library staff since 1978, earned his master'sdegree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Heand his staff and board operate with an annual budget of about two anda half million dollars.

The total library staff numbers about 100 persons, or a full time equivalentof about 50 full-time positions. Barbara Kelly is assistant director; interestingly,her academic field is biology, with emphasis on plants. (Clearly she keepsa weather eye on the atrium grove of trees, among a long list of othernon-botanical responsibilities.)

Other department heads are Michael Nitz, technical services; MargaretShriver, reference and information services; Margaret Ernst, circulation;Cecilia Wiltzius, community services and Carol DeJardin, children's department.

Members of the library's current foundation board are Robert Bodoh,John S. Bubolz, Joyce Bytof, Don Churchill, Kathleen Dugan, William Hodgkiss,Rue Johnson, Ralph O. Kennedy II, and Thomas O. Route.

Presently Patricia Warrick is president of the Friends of the AppletonLibrary; Robert Spahn treasurer and Gretchen Wilcox, secretary. Chairmenof FOAL's various committees are Eloise Blair, Alice Melchoir, Marian Leisering,Lorraine Hauch, Gail Barwiss, Rosemary Cummings and Gordon Bebeau. At largedirectors are Margaret Rossmmeisl and Rosalie Peerenboom.

There are volumes more in the APL Centennial story. In 1897, the carddata-log was an innovation covering only the materials within its foursmall walls. Today, the boundaries of the knowledge within its walls arevirtually endless; APL belongs to the Outagamie/Waupaca Library System(OWLS), and has as well, an on-line catalog of a million plus items inthe collections of about 30 libraries. In short, all you have to do isask. There's a huge periodical index, too.

In 1995, APL established the first public library web site in the state;today it handles some 25,000 "hits" a month. It's a "virtual"library, as well as a walk-in one.

And the children always are a top priority ... not counting the edictback in the early days when they were "discouraged" from comingin on Sunday afternoons. Times change.

The present library board of directors includes the Rev. Willis L. Bloedow,president; Peter Ducklow, vice president; Terry Bergen, Terry Bergman,Ronald Dunlap, Eloise Loebach, Ald. Deborah Matz, Lee Parker and KathleenSchuessler.

So there it is: The Appleton Public Library, a hundred years old andnever younger, with its collective eye on an ever better future.

The centennial celebration logo will greet guests at the celebrationreception with is design an open book with the words "100 Years"emblazoned thereon.

Appleton says "Happy Birthday Library!"

Appleton Public Library / 225 N. Oneida St. / Appleton, Wisconsin 54911-4780  (920) 832-6170
contact us: who to call or write  / feedback  / ask a librarian

 Latest revision 4/3/2000