Streator library asks community to help restore historic murals

The Streator Library is asking for help to preserve its history.

In November 2020, library trustees hosted representative from Parma Conservation, a Chicago mural preservation company, to view the murals underneath the library’s rotunda. The cost of the restoration of the murals is estimated to be $130,000, according to David Reed, Library Board President.

The oil on canvas murals in the library’s rotunda were painted by Chicago artist Gustav Fuchs and were completed in December of 1905. To the trustees’ knowledge, the murals have never been cleaned since they were installed. Severe smoke damage occurred to the murals in 1945 when the library had a fire in the boiler room.

The library board believes it can get a grant to provide 50% of the funding for the restoration project, but it would need to raise the other 50% (roughly $65,000) in a fund at the time the grant is applied for to qualify.

Listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, “the library has been a Streator icon in the downtown landscape since its dedication on Feb. 3, 1903,” Reed said. The murals were painted on leather in a local shop and installed in Streator’s Carnegie Library in 1905.

“We are asking for the support of community members to help us with these endeavors,” Reed said in a letter. “Because we are not guaranteed that we will receive a grant, any money donated will go first to the mural project.”

Reed said a second phase of restoration also is proposed. The library board is seeking estimates to install lighting and renovate the interior dome.

The library board sent direct mailings to community members and issued a campaign on Facebook.

Donations can be sent to the Streator Public Library at 130 S. Park St., Streator, IL 61364, or by donating through the library’s website at https://www.streatorpubliclibrary.org/

Anyone wishing to donate should contact Reed at 815-822-3427 or Streator Library Director Cindy Maxwell at 815-672-2729 for more information.

Last spring, Streator residents voted in favor of a tax increase from .15% to .23% on the library’s portion of the property tax bill, allowing its board to continue with much-needed work to the 117-year-old building.

As Streator’s population got smaller, tax revenue shrank and the historic building required expensive maintenance, which was exacerbated last year when a contractor discovered the building never had been tuck pointed, for example. The library also has been adjusting to the increase in pay for staff with the state’s minimum wage requirements going into effect.