Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie, Waukegan

2025 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Rehabilitation

The long-vacant, historic Carnegie Library in downtown Waukegan has been painstakingly restored to create a vibrant museum showcasing the architecturally significant building’s unique features as well as the history of the northern Chicago suburb. The building, which is landmarked locally and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by the architecture firm behind many Carnegie libraries, Patton and Miller. It served as the town’s main library from 1903 until 1965, when it closed. Following a brief period of use by various community groups, the landmark overlooking Lake Michigan sat largely vacant until this year when the Waukegan Historical Society reopened it as its new home, the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie. The historical society and its longtime partner, the Waukegan Park District, led the $15 million project to revitalize the building that had experienced severe deterioration after decades of vacancy and vandalism. With the help of skilled tradesmen and preservation professionals, historic details and character were brought back to life. Most historic features required both the restoration of surviving fabric and the replication of missing elements, posing a significant challenge to create a uniform appearance. For instance, restoration of the plaster pier capitals, cornice, niches and dome in the central reception room resulted in a seamless combination of new and restored details. Original paint and stain colors and surface textures of original sand-float plaster were also replicated based on a rigorous historic finish analysis. The result is approximately 9,600 square feet of restored space across the original building and an accessible addition that houses exhibition spaces, a research library and archive and an assembly space for lectures and special programs.

(Photo credit: Leslie Schwartz)

Additional Information

The project relied on public and private financial support, including an anonymous $5 million gift and hundreds of donations from individuals. The project also received more than $1 million in grants from various organizations, including the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Lake County Community Development Block Grant and the Waukegan Community Development Block Grant programs. Federal funds of $3 million, with assistance from Congressman Brad Schneider, and $3.5 million in state funds, assisted through Illinois State Senator Adriane Johnson, ensured that the project was fully funded.

(Photo credit: Leslie Schwartz)

Project Principals

• Waukegan Historical Society, Owner
• Waukegan Park District, Owner
• Harboe Architects, Architect
• Berglund Construction, General Contractor
• TERRA Engineering, Ltd., Civil Engineers and Landscape Architects
• TGRWA Structural Engineers
• Principal Architectural Consulting Engineers, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Engineer
• Building Conservation Associates, Finish Consultants
• Charter Sills, Lighting Consultant
• Luci Creative, Exhibit Designer

(Photo credit: Leslie Schwartz)

Why is this place important to you?

T. Gunny Harboe, FAIA, F.US/ICOMOS, President, Harboe Architects

The Waukegan Carnegie Library building is recognized for its significance both through its individual listing in the National Register of Historic Places and its designation as a local historic landmark by the City of Waukegan. The building was designed by Patton and Miller, an architectural firm known for its specialization in the design of Carnegie libraries. While there had been previous private efforts to establish circulating libraries and reading rooms in the city, the Carnegie Library building housed Waukegan’s first free public library. For more than 60 years, the building served as a center of learning for all Waukegan citizens. Following the relocation of the library to a new, modern building in the 1960s, the 1903 Carnegie building continued to symbolize for Waukegan a pivotal early period in the history of local education. The Waukegan Carnegie Library building is also important to the Waukegan community as a significant work of civic architecture. Despite decades of disuse and deferred maintenance, the library building retained a high degree of architectural integrity while awaiting a new purpose – particularly on the exterior, where character-defining features survived, albeit much in need of restoration. Where interior features were lost, enough information was available to support their reconstruction without conjecture. In its restored state, the building is an important representation of life in Waukegan at the beginning of the 20th century.

(Photo credit: Leslie Schwartz)

How did saving this place impact people in your community?

T. Gunny Harboe, FAIA, F.US/ICOMOS, President, Harboe Architects

Perhaps the most fundamental community benefit of saving the Waukegan Carnegie Library was its transformation from a long-vacant public building into a once-again thriving centerpiece of the city. Despite widespread appreciation for its architecture and its historic role as a local nucleus of learning and community, the building had been perennially endangered. In the 1990s, the City of Waukegan actively explored plans to demolish the building, prompting residents to mount a protracted but ultimately successful preservation campaign, resulting in the building’s designation as a local historic landmark in 2007. Ray Bradbury supported the effort to save the building, having spent many formative hours of his own youth in the library’s reading rooms.

While the local landmark designation conferred protection from the direct threat of deliberate demolition, the building sat vacant for many years afterward and remained vulnerable to demolition by neglect. The recently completed restoration and adaptive reuse have finally secured a positive long-term future for the building, eliminating one of Waukegan’s most conspicuous cases of blight while unleashing the latent potential of an underutilized community resource. Signifying the project’s immense impact on the community, more than 1,000 people visited the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie during its opening weekend.

Finally, the Waukegan Historical Society’s move to the Carnegie Library building has not come at the expense of another historic building’s continued use. The Waukegan History Museum has long occupied the Haines House in Bowen Park and will continue to operate the historic property as a house museum.

(Photo credit: DroNation)