Havana Public Library

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

From the record

“The Havana Public Library is a Carnegie library located at 201 W. The library was built in 1902 to house Havana's library program, which began in 1896 and was previously kept in a room of the city hall.”
Wikipedia article Havana Public Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 2 National Register listings published here for Mason County · listed in 1994 · 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. 201 W. Adams St., Havana, 62644
When was it listed? February 1994
Category. building
Also known as. Illinois Carnegie Libraries MPS
Township. Havana township
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 94000014 - 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

6,158 words

The chapter on Havana Township in Centennial History of Mason County, Including a Sketch of the Early History of Illinois, Its Physical Peculiarities, Soils, Climate, Production, Etc., published 1876 names Havana. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Havana is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Illinois river, and is the county seat of the county. The situation is somewhat elevated, perhaps an average of forty feet above the river. It contains many fine residences and pleasant homes, and more than ordinary taste is exhibited in the improvement and ornamentation of grounds.

Passage source: Centennial History of Mason County, Including a Sketch of the Early History of Illinois, Its Physical Peculiarities, Soils, Climate, Production, Etc., published 1876.

The details of the early settlement of Havana are so fully set forth in the biographies of Pulaski Scovil, A. W. Kemp, N. J. Rockwell, O. E. Foster, J. H. Neteler, and others, that a repetition here would be a work of superogation. In lieu there of, we will refer the reader to the biographies above named, to the extracts from early newspapers, and the railroad department.

Passage source: Centennial History of Mason County, Including a Sketch of the Early History of Illinois, Its Physical Peculiarities, Soils, Climate, Production, Etc., published 1876.

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 Havana Township - 6,158 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

5 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Havana Public Library between 1999 and 2004, burning about 284 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Debris and open burning	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 April 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	28 acres	Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge	KNOTT FIRE 4-5-04
3 April 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6.0 acres	Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge	SPOON RIVER 01 04-03
14 October 1999	Debris and open burning	250 acres	Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge	CANTERBERR
25 January 2004	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge	GUDAT 1
25 January 2004	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge	GUDAT 2

Every fire recorded in Mason County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Havana Public Library: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Holle Pit #1	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
	Mason County Pit	Stone	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Mason County

Storms near this property

60 of 61 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Havana, the town this property stands in, in 61 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 34 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 3 tornado, 3 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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
April 2013	Flood	Havana	$5,000,000	Hundreds of cabins and sheds in wildlife areas along the Illinois River were severely damaged. In addition, 25 homes and several other structures were damaged near Bath, Snicarte, Havana and Goofy Ridge. Nearly 15 miles of roads will need to be rebuilt due to the flooding. The river stage at Havana climbed to a record level of 27.78 feet on April 25th at 19:15 local time, which was nearly 14 feet above flood stage. High impact flooding continued into the month of May 2013.
June 1999	Tornado (F1)	Havana	$500,000	no account filed
August 2008	Lightning	Havana	$150,000	Lightning struck a house in the city of Havana setting the roof and attic ablaze. The residents of the house were able to flee uninjured. The house burned to the ground.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$50,000	Several trees were blown down in Havana.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$50,000	Numerous trees were blown down.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$35,000	Several tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Havana.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$35,000	Several power lines and large tree limbs were blown down in Havana.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$30,000	Five power poles were snapped off west of IL-97 on 1550E near the power station.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$25,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in Havana and across much of Mason County.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$20,000	Downed power lines caused a 4-acre field fire northeast of Havana.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$20,000	Power lines were blown down in Havana.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$20,000	Several trees were uprooted in Havana.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$10,000	Several large tree limbs were blown down.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$10,000	Numerous trees were blown down in Havana.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$6,000	Four trees were blown down just northeast of Havana.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$6,000	Two trees were blown down.
May 2015	Lightning	Havana	$5,000	Lightning struck a tree, which fell on a building behind the fire department in Havana.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$5,000	Power lines were blown down.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	$2,000	A tree was blown down in Havana.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several trees, power lines, and traffic lights were blown down across Havana as a result of a downburst.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Minor damage occurred to shingles and siding of a house.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several large tree branches were blown down in Riverfront Park.
October 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	A large tree limb was blown down.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several tree limbs were blown down across Havana.
July 2020	Flash Flood	Havana	-	Several streets were flooded and barricaded in Havana.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	A flag pole was snapped.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Havana	-	A narrow band of thunderstorms produced 2.00 to 3.00 of rain on very saturated ground in west central and northern Mason County. Many streets were flooded in Havana and Manito. Numerous rural roads were also impassable from Havana to Manito during the afternoon hours of June 26th.
May 2013	Flood	Havana	-	High impact flooding on the Illinois River continued from April.\|\|Hundreds of cabins and sheds in wildlife areas along the Illinois River were severely damaged by the floodwaters. In addition, 25 homes and several other structures were damaged near Bath, Snicarte, Havana and Goofy Ridge. Nearly 15 miles of roads were destroyed due to the flooding. High impact flooding subsided when the river level at Havana fell below a stage of 17 feet on May 19th.\|\|Damage estimates were reported in the April Storm Data for this event.
April 2006	Hail	Havana	-	Hail covered the ground.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	No damage was reported.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Tree limbs and corn were blown down.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down.
September 2006	Flash Flood	Havana	-	Numerous roads flooded in Havana. Route 136 had 1 to 2 feet of water flowing across it for a time.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several trees and a road sign were blown over.
May 2003	Tornado (F1)	Havana	-	A tornado touched down in the Quiver Beach area. It destroyed a travel trailer and a garage. As the tornado traveled to the northeast it blew down numerous trees and power lines before lifting and dissipating. No injuries were reported.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Tree limbs and power lines were reported down across the area.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Trees and power lines were reported down in Havana, as well as on the southern end of Easton.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Several large trees were blown down in Matanza Beach.
June 1999	Hail	Havana	-	Golfball sized hail fell one mile south of Havana and in Kilbourne. Dime size hail fell in San Jose.
November 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	In Mason City, a steel roofing system was blown off of an IDOT garage and numerous trees were blown down. Five miles north of Mason City, a tandem truck was blown off of Highway 136. The driver was not injured. In rural Mason City, a 2x4 was thrown through a bathroom window on a farm house and the roof was blown off of a machine shed.
April 1998	Tornado (F0)	Havana	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field 3 miles southwest of Havana. No injuries or damage were reported.
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and power lines down in Bath, along Route 78 between Bath and Havana, and in Havana. Also, a grain wagon was blown across the road in Havana and the shed doors were blown in at the Havana city disposal plant. No injuries were reported.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	A series of severe thunderstorms moved through the Havana area. Numerous trees were blown down, one of which fell onto the roof of a house 2 miles south of Havana. Also, some minor street flooding was reported due to the heavy amounts of rain in a short period of time. No injuries were reported and no damage estimate was available.
February 2026	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
March 2024	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
May 2019	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
June 2015	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
August 2003	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
April 2000	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Havana	-	no account filed
April 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	no account filed
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Havana	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mason 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

1 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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Havana Water Tower	0.2 miles	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 94000014 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mason County	All 2 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.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
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.