Maywood Public Library District

History:

The Library has come a long way in the course of its history, thanks in large part to Andrew Carnegie.  After its founding on December 29, 1874, the library moved from the Village Hall basement to the Waterworks Building, and then into two rooms in the Village Hall.  In 1904 Andrew Carnegie responded to a petition from the Library Board for the construction of Maywood's first library building. Mr. Carnegie contributed $12,500 for the erection of the building after the Village guaranteed $1250.00 annually for the maintenance.  This amount was not sufficient for the heating, lighting and furnishing of the building, so Mr. E.T. Hughes, Chairman of the Building committee, secured the issue of $4500.00 in liberty bonds to provide for all the necessary equipment.  The Maywood Public Library was officially dedicated in April 1905.  On March 31, 1906, the newly erected Carnegie library building was officially open to patrons.

At that time the library's book collection comprised 4648 volumes with a circulation of 19,016 books a year and 883 registered patrons. As the library began to grow, Maywood opened a branch in Garfield School on Friday, November 14,1924.  On August 18, 1928 a new branch was opened on 17th Avenue in a real estate office.  This grew so rapidly that on November 10th a store was rented on 17th Avenue where the branch operated successfully for 68 years.