Library Hall

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“Library Hall in Carpentersville, Illinois, also known as Administration Building, Dundee Township Park District, is a Romanesque architecture style building built during 1895-1897. It was built as a memorial to Julius Angelo Carpenter, donor of the Union Congregational Church and Parsonage in Carpenterville.”
Wikipedia article Library Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 86 National Register listings published here for Kane County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 21 N. Washington St., Carpentersville, 60110
When was it listed? August 1973
Category. building
Township. Dundee township
Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 73000709 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

4,451 words

The chapter on Dundee Township in History of Kane County, Ill., published 1908 names Carpentersville. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The village of Carpentersville is in the township of Dundee and situated sue mile north of the village of Dundee, on Fox river. It was first settled by Daniel G. and Charles V. Carpenter in 1837. The village was surveyed and plaited in 185 1. The same year J. A. Carpenter built the first bridge across the river at his own expense. A school building was erected about 1855, two stories in height. The upper story is occupied by the Sons of Temperance, whose organization dates back to 185 1 and, what is remarkable, has been in active operation ever since. They have about forty members and a fine library of four hundred or five hundred volumes. There is one religious organization (Congregational) but no church building. A flourishing Sabbath school is kept up, however. An elegant iron bridge was built in 1869-70 at a cost of $10,000. The village has grown up entirely in consequence of the location of heavy manufactories here. The water power is good and well improved. It is almost exclusively owned by Hon. J. A. Carpenter, one of the most extensive and enterprising manufacturers in the West.

Passage source: History of Kane County, Ill., published 1908.

Our sketch of the various manufactories, all of which are wholly, or in part owned by Mr. Carpenter, will show what a single mind can accomplish when governed by sound judgment and business enterprise. A dam was built in 1837 by the Oatmans, of Dundee, with the intention of taking the water down on the west side for use at the village of Dundee. A canal was constructed and a sawmill built between the two villages and operated for some years, but the entire water power eventually fell into the hands of J. A. Carpenter, who commenced and continued developing the manufacturing business of Carpentersville until nearly the whole power is absorbed at that point. The remains of the Oatman canal are still to be seen, but its bed is dry.

Passage source: History of Kane County, Ill., published 1908.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Dundee Township - 4,451 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Library Hall: 7 producers, 5 past producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Algonquin Pit #5	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Algonquin Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Beverly Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Carpentersville Pit #25	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Dundee Pit Meyer Material	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Dundee Pit Road Mat'Ls Corp	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Dundee S & G Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Elgin Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hoffman Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mc Graw Pit Meyer Material	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Kane County

Storms near this property

38 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Carpentersville, the town this property stands in, in 38 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 22 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 1997	Lightning	Carpentersville	1 hurt	A 43 year old man suffered minor injuries when he was struck by lightning while changing a tire in a school parking lot.
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Kane County EMA reported power lines down along Arrow St and Austin Ave in Carpentersville.
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A tree had fallen and was balancing on power lines along Castlewood Dr in Carpentersville.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A large tree was blown down at Route 68 and Wakefield Drive.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Widespread tree and powerline damage was reported in Carpentersville. A few trees were snapped. The worst of the damage was east of the Fox River between Route 68 and Route 62.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Several whole trees were uprooted in Carpentersville along with numerous healthy 6 inch diameter tree limbs blown down. Fire crews responded to 14 reports of power lines blown down. One of these power lines started a fire in a detached garage on Golfview Lane. A tree fell onto a roof of a house on Wakefield Drive, leaving the house uninhabitable.
July 2017	Heavy Rain	Carpentersville	-	Rainfall of 2.01 inches was measured in 1 hour and 40 minutes.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	An eight inch diameter tree was blown down along with six inch diameter tree limbs.
May 2011	Flood	Carpentersville	-	The intersection of Dundee Road and Golfview Lane was flooded. Two inches of rain fell over the hour leading up to this report.
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Multiple trees were blown down.
March 2005	Hail	Carpentersville	-	Quarter sized hail was reported and 66 mph wind gust measured with unofficial equipment.
March 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Roof and structural damage reported.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A wind gust measured with unoffical equipment. Also, trees were blown down.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A large tree fell on house causing substantial damage to the house.
May 2004	Flash Flood	Carpentersville	-	Street flooding occurred after 1.75 inches of rain fell in 35 minutes.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A ham radio tower and antenna, and large tree limbs were blown down.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Wind was measured on a private weather sensor.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	Large tree branches were down.
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	A spotter reported a 72 mph wind gust.
June 2021	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
June 2020	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 2015	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
April 2014	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
August 2001	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Carpentersville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kane County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Dundee Township Historic District	0.6 miles	1975
Teeple Barn	3.3 miles	1979
Spring-Douglas Historic District	4.1 miles	2000
St. Mary's Church of Gilberts	4.5 miles	1992
Elgin Academy	4.8 miles	1976
Elgin Tower Building	4.9 miles	2002

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000709 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kane County	All 86 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.