Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1979. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
one of 75 National Register listings in Lake County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Lake County.
National Register reference number.79001872- 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.
Fires near this property
1 since 2003
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Garfield Library between
2003 and 2003, burning about 400 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
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,475 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Garfield Library between 1864 and
1975: 1,244 Animalia, 150 Plantae, 71 Fungi, 6 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. Doolittle, A. F. Clewell, A. Woolman and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of Garfield Library: 2 producers.
All of them still produce. What was taken out: Silica, 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Mentor, the town this property stands in, in 46 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 24 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 4 flash flood, 2 waterspout.
The reports record 2 injuries. 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.
Penny to hen egg sized hail was observed for several minutes in Mentor. Much of the hail was golf ball sized or larger. This resulted in many vehicles being damaged.
A weak tornado moved inland from Lake Erie and was on the ground in Mentor for a little less than one mile. Many trees were knocked down with a few homes sustaining minor damage.
A portion of Interstate 90, a main throughway, was closed between State Route 306 and State Route 615 due to flooding. Several disabled semi trucks that stalled in high water.
Thunderstorm winds tore some siding off of a house near the intersection of Center Street and Mentor Avenue in Mentor. Some tree limbs were also down in the area.
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.
From the nomination file
2,860 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The 1-1/2 story, gable-roofed brick library building is rectangular in plan. To either side of the_entrance are 6/6 light CONDITION space. DESCRIPTION FAIR XEXCELLENT UNALTERED The original basement has been replaced with concrete block.The interior entablature and pediment. CHECK ONE Doric pilasters and columns to each side of the paneled door support a plain -UNEXPOSED _DETERIORATED GOOD DATE The five-bay facade, which faces east, has a center entrance. Centrally located exterior chimneys dominate the end walls. The north end has a slender (two panes wide) windows, 6/6 light windows to either side of a basement entrance at the northwest corner. windows. XALTERED XMOVED the basement.
is modified to some extent with glass partitions to make appropriate office In recent years paneled entry vestibule with large rooms to either side.Wood moldings throughout The walls are Flemish bond. The south end has only the semi-circular windows.To either side of the There is a projecting brick water table above shutters have been added. At the roofline there is a plain entablature AREAS OF
Statement of significance
chartered.. In 1890 the scope-of the organization was-expanded 1895 the library, which was housed in a room in the village hall, of President Garfield, was the first president of the Mentor community, the school board renamed the library Garfield Public from the northeast corner of Mentor and Center, a distance of 1903 1600-1699 1700-1799 1500-1599 1800-1899 COMMERCE ENGINEERING EDUCATION PERIOD ECONOMICS THEATER ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC AGRICULTURE SCIENCE SIGNIFICANCE RELIGION X1900- _COMMUNICATIONS _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT INDUSTRY SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN It.was not until 1875 that an active Mentor Library Association LITERATURE _CONSERVATION about two blocks and refurbished as an office building. INVENTION Village Library Association.
- EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT The small library building is important to the community for its _PREHISTORIC _PHILOSOPHY association with the Garfield family and for its place in the promote the social and intellectual welfare of the community.In service James R.Garfield had rendered to the library and his educational history of the town. - TRANSPORTATION plans and specifications for a New England Colonial" structure.
Mr.Garfield transferred the deed on Feb.l4th and resigned as to"provide and maintain a public library and reading room and -_1400-1499 -MUSIC -COMMUNITY PLANNING ART Garfield, brother of James and a Cleveland architect, donated MILITARY president of the library board.To recognize the many years of ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC In 190l a site was purchased for a library building.Abram was held. In 1927 the village school board took over the library. -LAW 9
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 79001872, 22 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
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.
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