Romeoville's White Oak Library District Celebrates 100 Years

ROMEOVILLE, IL — The Romeoville Public Library may have opened in 1971, but it is part of a White Oak Library District that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this week.

The district’s unbroken thread of existence began in 1921 when it was started with the Lockport Women’s Club. The group voted to start the district in December 1921 and six weeks later, the Lockport Public Library opened its doors to the public on Jan. 26, 1922.

According to historians, the Women’s Club operated the system until 1929 when Lockport Township officials took over day-to-day control of the library. Local residents approved a referendum which provided the township with a source of revenue to run the library.

The library was housed in a variety of locations in downtown Lockport it ended up being housed at Boyer House, an old mansion on State Street. In 1965, the township built a what is now the current Lockport library on the site of the Boyer House garden. In 1969, the library district created a second branch when they constructed a library in Crest Hill.

The Romeoville Jaycees sponsored a Community Attitude Survey to see what residents wanted in the growing town, according to local historians. The results of the 1967 poll included 63 percent of respondents indicating they wanted a library and community center.

The village gave its approval of the project in 1968. But before a library could be constructed, a new library district had to be formed, which would encompass all those living in Romeoville, Bolingbrook, and the unincorporated areas of DuPage Township.

A referendum was held on December 20, 1969 and passed. The new district was named the Fountaindale Library District, based on a naming contest won by James Bingle, historians said. Fountaindale was the name of one of the first settlements of note in DuPage Township.

Until a permanent facility could be built, the Romeoville library was housed in a room in Parkview School (now R.C. Hill). The temporary library opened on June 19, 1971. Ground was broken on the permanent library structure in September 1973 and completed in mid 1975. The property for both the Romeoville and Bolingbrook libraries was owned by Valley View School District and was intended to be used for expansion, historians said.

As part of the deal for the land, the school district received free rent in the basement of the Romeoville library for 10 years. In fact, the basement was constructed specifically to serve as the school district’s administration center.

In 1981, a question about the Lockport Township Public Library pulling away from Lockport Township was put on the ballot and was approved by the public. As a result, the Lockport and Crest Hill libraries formed their own library district and changed their name to the Des Plaines Valley Public Library District.

Romeoville residents who lived south of 135th Street were part of Lockport Township and were part of Des Plaines Valley. Residents living north of 135th Street were in DuPage Township and part of Fountaindale. This presented a problem, as a majority of Romeoville residents were not directly serviced by the library in their own village, historians said.

“The biggest problems I had in my 20 years working for the library,” Nancy Hackett, the former Romeoville head hibrarian, said in a news release, “were residents asking me ‘Why can’t I use my city library!?’”

A Romeoville resident living south of 135th Street would not be able to get a library card at the Romeoville library and was paying taxes to the Lockport and Crest Hill libraries, not the one in their own village. By 2006, two-thirds of Romeoville residents lived south of 135th Street. In 2008, Fountaindale agreed to transfer its portion of Romeoville to Des Plaines Valley, uniting all of Romeoville into the same library district.

In 2010, Des Plaines Valley voters passed a $23 million referendum to purchase and renovate the Romeoville library building, build a new Crest Hill library, and renovate and expanding the Lockport library. In 2011, as architectural plans were being finalized, a decision was made to rename the library district, which now included Romeoville. White Oak Library District was ultimately selected.

Renovations to the Romeoville building began in April 2011. At that time, the basement was not used by the library itself, but rather rented out to other entities. When Valley View School District moved out in December 1984, they left behind 23,000 square feet of space that was split up into little offices.

Now, the library realized they could double the size of their space without enlarging the building itself. The basement was gutted and reconfigured and, for the first time, the space was dedicated to library use.

White Oak Library District is now focused on two areas of growth.

“We know the future for us is our children’s department growing the next generation of library users,” Scott Pointon, the White Oak Library District Director, said in a news release “We also are focused on our outreach department engaging seniors, making them love the library, and providing them with great library services.”