History

Pekin Public Library began as a city library in 1896, after the private Pekin Library Association convinced the city council that this would be a great benefit for the city. In 1900, Mary Gaither wrote a letter to Andrew Carnegie asking for funds to build a library, and in 1902 the Carnegie building was completed. Many Pekinites recall the old building with its red tiled roof, grandiose dome and solid shape. The stained glass windows, the grandfather and grandmother clocks and the ornamental lamp in the plaza are items salvaged from the old Carnegie library when our current facility was built in 1972.

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