McMillan Memorial Library

The McMillan Memorial Library is the municipal library of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin and serves southern Wood County. McMillan is a member of the South Central Library System, which services seven counties in Wisconsin.

History

The Library's history begins with a bequest made by Thomas Blythe Scott in 1886. Mr. Scott left five-thousand dollars to the city of Grand Rapids "for the purpose of procuring, establishing, and maintaining a library, forever free, for the use of the inhabitants thereof." By the terms of his will, the city should "provide and furnish a suitable and convenient room or building," but it took the city three years to pass the needed referendum. On March 22, 1890 the T.B. Scott Free Public Library of Grand Rapids opened in rented rooms on what would become Second Street. In 1892, the Library moved to four rooms in the newly constructed City Hall. When Grand Rapids and neighboring Centralia merged in 1900 and established a new city hall across the river, the Library gradually expanding into the former city offices.

In 1896, Mr. Jeremiah (Jere) D. Witter learned of a traveling library in Dunn County, Wisconsin and instantly gave the T. B. Scott library one-thousand dollars to create such a system for neighboring villages and townships in South Wood County. At his request, the Board of Trustees organized itself into a second Board to operate this project which the trustees insisted should be called the J. D. Witter Free Traveling Libraries. This valuable service, the second to be established in Wisconsin, was offered throughout the area for fifty-one years.

In 1947, Mr. George Mead (President of Consolidated Water Power and Paper Company) bought the Witter home on Third Street and gave it to the city for the use of the library. While a great improvement, this facility eventually proved too small for the growing community. By the mid-1960s, the need for a larger library was becoming apparent.

In September, 1964, Mrs. Mary McMillan Burt established the McMillan Trust with a gift of Consolidated Papers stock valued at half a million dollars. Mrs. Burt had also requested that the building include a theater to be used by some future theater group. With additional community donations and a federal grant, construction began in 1968 and the McMillan Memorial Library opened on May 17, 1970.

Current services

, a children's room with computers and story time area, internet/database computers, free wireless Internet throughout the building, and a wide variety of programming for adults and children.

The Library has won two Wisconsin Library Association/Highsmith Awards for innovation, one for its Coffeehouse series of authors and poets and the other for its on-line collection of local historical documents. The Library has also been a leader in self-checkout, self-service holds and display-style shelving.

References

* [http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/history/library/index.html Centennial story, 1890-1990 : McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin] , by Alice McCaul Hayward. Wisconsin Rapids: McMillan Library Press, 1990.

External links

* [http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org McMillan Memorial Library]
* [http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/library/tour.html Photo Tour of McMillan Memorial Library]
* [http://www.wirapids.org/ City of Wisconsin Rapids]