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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to
3congratulate the Gail Borden Public Library District on the
4occasion of its 150th anniversary; and
 
5    WHEREAS, After the Illinois legislature passed the Free
6Library Act on March 7, 1872, the Elgin community was the first
7in the State to vote "yes" to create a public library, opening
8the Elgin Library in 1874 in a building located where the Tower
9Building now stands; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The Elgin Library moved to a home fitting the
11city's growing stature in the early 1890s when Alfred and
12Samuel Church donated a mansion at Spring Street and Highland
13Avenue for its use with the only proviso that it be renamed the
14Gail Borden Public Library after their stepfather, who made
15his fortune by inventing a new way to condense milk and built
16the Elgin Milk Condensing Co. in the city because it was where
17his second wife once lived; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The Gail Borden Public Library remained at 50
19North Spring Street until the early 1970s, when the Gail
20Borden Public Library District was created and a new library
21was built at the southwest corner of Kimball Street and Grove
22Avenue; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, As the community grew, so did demand for the Gail
2Borden Public Library District's services; the library
3district's current downtown facility opened at 270 North Grove
4Avenue, across from its prior location, in October 2003; the
5Rakow Branch on Bowes Road in Elgin followed in August 2009,
6and the South Elgin Branch on South McLean Boulevard opened in
7July 2016; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The Gail Borden Public Library District serves
9149,907 residents in Elgin, South Elgin, and portions of
10Hoffman Estates, Streamwood, and Bartlett, with 60.5% of
11residents being cardholders, making it the second largest
12library district in Illinois for population served; and
 
13    WHEREAS, The Gail Borden Public Library District has
14received a number of awards, including the 2009 National Medal
15for Museum and Library Services, the nation's highest
16recognition for American libraries, and being named the 2010
17Elgin Hispanic Network Organization of the Year; and
 
18    WHEREAS, The Gail Borden Public Library Foundation is
19hosting a kick-off event to the library district's 150th
20anniversary celebration at its downtown location on December
218, 2023; the library district will be holding various programs
22and presentations throughout the year to commemorate the

 

 

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1sesquicentennial; therefore, be it
 
2    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL
3ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the
4Gail Borden Public Library District on its 150th anniversary,
5and we wish the library district continued success in its
6endeavors to best serve its community and visitors; and be it
7further
 
8    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
9presented to the Gail Borden Public Library District as an
10expression of our esteem and respect.