Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, Illinois
Image by myoldpostcards
On the south side of Carrollton’s Courthouse Square is the Carrollton Public Library. The Georgian Revival style library in Carrollton is one of 105 libraries in Illinois that were built with grants made in various amounts by the Carnegie Foundation to Illinois communities between 1900-1916.
Carrollton attorney Henry Thomas Rainey (1860-1934) was instrumental in securing a Carnegie grant in the amount of ,000.
Running as a Democrat, Rainey was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902, the same year the library was being built. He rose to become the 40th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1933, and was speaker when the core of newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was enacted. Rainey’s tenure as speaker was brief as he died in August 1934, less than a year-and-one-half after becoming second in line to the U.S. presidency.
The Carrollton Public Library is a contributing property within the Carrollton Courthouse Square Historic District. The district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Most of the buildings in the district are 19th century two and three story commercial buildings.
