WAUPUN — Before the Waupun Public Library was at its current location at 123 S. Forest St., it was located in the Waupun Carnegie Library at 22 S. Madison St., now the Waupun Heritage Museum.
The Waupun Library has a long history, and was originally established through the efforts of Edwin Hillyer and William Euen in 1858. Hillyer served as librarian for this time and operated the library out of his insurance office for 37 years.
In 1895, Hillyer sold the library’s collection to the City of Waupun on the condition of becoming a Free Public Library, which it did in the year 1900 thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Waupun Women’s Club. During this time it was located in one of the rooms of the Whiting Theatre, which was located where Bentz Automotive is now at 504 E. Main St.
The new library board, seeing the size of their collection regularly growing since they purchased it from Hillyer, knew that they would need to find a more permanent location in the City.
The Waupun Library Board wrote to Andrew Carnegie, an international philanthropist who spent much of his wealth on furthering education and the arts—contributing to thousands of libraries in North America and Britain. They quickly got their answer: Carnegie would contribute $10,000 towards the Waupun Public Library on the condition the City of Waupun spend $1,000 on its yearly maintenance.
Funding secured for the building, the Board began to draft plans. They wished to keep the library in the downtown area and considered several different locations, but almost all were too small for their designs—that is, except for the lot of the former Hinkley house at 22 S Madison St. The house had been recently moved from the property and the land sold to the City for $1,900.
Being in the downtown area, it was an ideal central location for local readers. But its location off Main Street would also keep the building and its contents away from the noise and dirt kicked up by the high traffic. At the time, even Main St was still mostly dirt.
A location secured, and a design from H. A. Foeller selected, construction began in the fall of 1904, and several photographs exist of the construction’s progress which are on display at the museum.
The Waupun Carnegie Library officially opened one year after construction began, in late October 1905. The grand opening was notably attended by Edwin Hillyer, Clarence and Blanche Shaler (who was on the library board for some time), and reportedly hundreds of local residents.
While the funds from Carnegie were enough to complete the structure, there was not enough to finish the basement rooms. One of the board members, E.M. Beach, passed in 1906 and provided an endowment of $1,000 to finish the downstairs lecture room, which was the large room on the north side of the building, and was thereafter called the “E.M. Beach Lecture Room.”
Sometime in the 1910s an artifact collection was started in one of the basement rooms of the library. It was the precursor to the building’s eventual and final use as a museum, though the Historical Society would not be formally established until the 1950s.
Fast forward to the 1960s, and the Library has been well established in the Carnegie building. But the building was getting cramped and had outdated amenities.
Seeing that they once again have exceeded their space, the Library looked to build a new, more modern building. Like the Carnegie, it needed to be in a relatively central, downtown location.
Thankfully, there was one large property that just recently opened up—the former lot of the South Ward School. South Ward School was previously used as a middle school, but after the construction of the High School on Spring Street—now Rock River Intermediate—the middle school was moved to the former High School—now Whispering Oaks. Having been disused for some time, it was left empty and demolished.
The owner of the property was very reluctant to sell for the offered amount, and his counter offer was too high for the City. The Library Board voted that if a deal on a downtown property could not be made, they would demolish the building and build a new, modern library on that same lot. The backlash was immediate, and after a petition was circulated the property was sold to the City.
Construction on the new building at 120 S. Mill St. began in June 1967 and was finished in one year, officially opening in June 1968.
After the contents were moved to the current Public Library, the question arose as to what to do with the Carnegie Library building now that it was empty. Several groups vied to use the building, including the Waupun Historical Society, but the City felt that other organizations may make better use of space at the time.
For a short time, the building was used as the Education Service Center. And after they left, the Senior Center was moved in, but within a month they realized that the building was unsuitable for their needs due to the building’s many stairs. The Council then decided to give the building to the Historical Society.
Since then, the Waupun Carnegie Library has been operated as the Waupun Heritage Museum. It has gone through redocoration over the years with a consistently growing artifact collection, but the building is still authentic to the original designs.
In April 2023, the Waupun Historical Society held a program discussing the history of the Library in Waupun including presenting several of the artifacts and original blueprints from the construction of the building.
The Waupun Historical Society has several exhibits on display in the building, including on Clarence Shaler, local business, schools, prisons, and military. A database of the Historical Society collection can be found online at their CatalogIt page.
The Historical Society also holds an annual Waupun Cemetery Walk, this year scheduled for Saturday, October 24, from 4:30PM to 7PM at Forest Mound Cemetery. This event is free to attend with free will donations that go towards maintaining the collection and providing local historical and genealogical research resources.
