‘We’re bringing it home’: After 60 years, restored historic library set to reopen as the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie

Fitted to the contour of a steep bluff with Lake Michigan visible to the east, a prominent historic landmark in downtown Waukegan is set to reopen in its original style and with renewed purpose.

Name your interest or passion — architecture, restoration, history, education — it’s all there and then some presented in exquisite workmanship and remarkable detail.

Born of inspiration, persistence and purpose, the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie — a $15 million project — is nearly complete and ready for a curious public just as when the building opened as an educational gift to the city nearly 122 years ago.

More than just preserving history, the former library has been revived and transformed as a regional attraction for visitors, teachers, researchers, families and students and to bring a buzz to the area.

The entire personal collection of famous author and Waukegan native Ray Bradbury, for example, is displayed in the same room restored to how it looked when he visited as a boy and became captivated by books. The stories of how the library originally was brought to town and what has been involved in its rebirth also are told.

“We’ve been at this for seven years and we’re bringing it home,” explained Lori Nerheim, president of the Waukegan Historical Society.

Unforeseen challenges, lead times for ordering supplies and other issues extended the timeline by about 17 months and increased the budget by $1.5 million.

Anticipation to share the result is building. An official date hasn’t been set but the museum is expected to open to the public in six to eight weeks.

“It’s bringing back the whole feeling of elegance and beauty of the building that was lost,” said Gunny Harboe, president of Chicago-based Harboe Architects.

The firm, nationally known for its preservation work, did the feasibility study in 2019. Harboe has overseen the design and been involved throughout the restoration and construction process.

“The big challenge was to get it to work for what the user wanted it to be,” Harboe added. “They turned something that was an empty, useless building into a beautiful resource.”

An elevator was installed and an addition built for accessibility. But from the terrazzo staircases and landings to the texture and colors of the plaster walls, to woodwork style and finishes that include the original window frames, the building inside and out largely is as it was when it opened.

But years before the first moldings were removed and cataloged or paint chips analyzed, the historical society in partnership with the Waukegan Park District was working to have the once vibrant library on the northeast corner of Sheridan Road and Washington Street restored and repurposed.

Steel titan and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s gift to the city was an event when it opened. Students were dismissed early and stores closed to participate in the dedication of the Waukegan Carnegie Library on Oct. 1, 1903.

It was one of 1,681 public libraries built in the U.S. and among 106 public and four university libraries in Illinois funded by Carnegie.

Those involved in the restoration want to rekindle that excitement by creating a regional attraction and cultural anchor that will bring history education to more students, families and visitors and become a catalyst for other projects in the area.

The project involved a diverse team of about 280 professionals from an array of traditional trades and those with special skills such as investigative paint analysis and wood restoration.

A good portion of the original interior, including a skylight, doors, window frames, moldings and various intricate features were restored painstakingly or re-created to match exactly.

Each trade had a critical role in ensuring the building was restored properly, Nerheim said.

Among them was Hugo Saavedra, a master woodworker and partner with Superb Woodwork Restoration of suburban Milwaukee. Working from a shadow in a tiny photo, Saavedra created dimensions and over about eight months in his shop re-created an intricate fireplace mantle of red oak for what was the children’s library.

The room now is dedicated to the personal collection of celebrated author Ray Bradbury, who grew up in town. So did brothers John and Doug Durbin, whose mother used to walk to the old library from their nearby home.

They’ve owned and operated Exclusive Woodworking for 42 years and are involved in large projects throughout the country. Childhood friends of Nerheim, they said they were honored to build library tables of red oak for the restored Children’s Reading Room.

“We came back and we’re excited to be part of it,” Doug Durbin said.

Waukegan’s first free public library was a center of activity for generations of residents, including Bradbury, who developed a love of books and was inspired to become a writer here.

“He wrote about it in his novels,” said Ty Rohrer, the park district’s manager of cultural affairs and a local historian. In some of Bradbury’s books, Waukegan was Green Town, Illinois, and the library described as offering a wondrous world of discovery.

His entire personal library collection of about 4,000 books and artifacts will be on display in the meticulously restored Children’s Reading Room, a key feature of the revived building that sat vacant and largely unused since closing in 1965.

Access also will available to extensive archives and research materials of Waukegan and there is a dedicated classroom.

However, the museum centerpiece is “The Waukegan Chronicles,” a nod to Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles.” The city’s history, people and natural resources from the end of last Ice Age to today is presented in an array of exhibits and artifacts spanning two floors.

Restoration of Waukegan’s Carnegie, one of two in Lake County and the only one still standing, began in fall 2022.

“I forgot how bad it looked,” Nerheim said.