ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Rock Island Public Library is celebrating its first permanent location's 120th anniversary on Friday, Dec. 15 from 2 to 5 p.m.
The library is holding an open house with refreshments, library history displays, building tours, a scavenger hunt and a spot to share library memories. Guests can also donate items or memories for the library's 150th anniversary time capsule, which will be sealed at the end of the year to be opened in 2048.
The downtown branch opened in 1903, more than 30 years after the Rock Island Public Library began in a rented space in the former Mitchell and Lynde Building. After two years of construction, the classically styled building was the first to open under the Illinois Local Library Act, the law that created tax-supported libraries.
Today, the downtown branch is the primary center for housing library collections, services and administrative offices.
"Although the library has been in existence for 150 years, owning a permanent space for 120 years is also significant," Library Director Angela Campbell said in a press release. "Even today, the library is the "third place" where people go outside of home and work."