Local libraries have always been more than buildings with books, they’re the beating heart of a community. They preserve our stories, protect our history, and give every generation a place to learn, gather, and grow. In an era where information moves fast and attention even faster, libraries remain one of the last true public spaces open to everyone. Preserving them and planning for their future isn’t just practical, it’s a commitment to the generations who will rely on them long after we’re gone. In Rhinelander, that commitment stretches back well over a century.
Rhinelander’s path to a permanent library began with humble roots. The city had a few “reading rooms” starting in the 1890s, one opened alongside a gymnasium in 1894, another operated by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1895, and a subscription library briefly run by Rev. Joseph Chandler in 1897. That same year, the city formally established the Rhinelander Public Library. By 1898, it opened its first real home: a small upstairs room above the Merchants State Bank at northwest corner of Brown and Davenport Streets. Warm in summer, drafty in winter, supported by donated books and volunteer effort, it was Rhinelander’s first true public reading space.
Andrew Carnegie, was no stranger to humble beginnings. Born in Scotland and raised in poverty before immigrating to America, he spent his boyhood educating himself with borrowed books from a local benefactor. When he later became one of the richest industrialists of the Gilded Age, he never forgot the power those books had given him. Believing that knowledge should be freely available to everyone, he began funding public libraries across the country. Between the 1880s and 1919, he helped build nearly 1,700 of them, 63 in Wisconsin, offering communities the chance to create lasting centers of learning if they pledged to support them. His vision would soon reach all the way into the pine forests of northern Wisconsin.
In 1902, library board secretary Mary Howe Shelton wrote directly to Andrew Carnegie requesting funding for a new, permanent library. At the same time, the Rhinelander Woman’s Club pledged the support Carnegie required, while the Brown Brothers Lumber Company donated a corner lot at Stevens and Rives Streets. Carnegie approved a $15,000 grant, and in 1904, Rhinelander’s Carnegie library opened its doors.
From the start, the library served as far more than a place to borrow books. Early Rhinelander Daily News articles show how deeply the community embraced it. In February 1931, the library set a circulation record: 372 books checked out in a single day, an astonishing number during the heart of the Great Depression. That number continues to grow in following years. The building regularly hosted Girl Scout meetings, genealogy groups, other club gatherings, story hours, and even early film showings. A dedicated magazine and newspaper room kept residents connected to the outside world.
As decades passed, the building needed more space. In 1983, the Friends of the Rhinelander District Library sponsored a referendum to determine the library’s future. Rather than abandon the historic structure, residents overwhelmingly supported an expansion. The result was the 1985 addition, which modernized the facility but also closed the original Carnegie entrance, shifting the main public entry to the new section. For nearly 40 years, that historic doorway remained sealed to regular foot traffic, visible, but no longer active.
But the story didn’t end there. In 2024, after careful restoration work, that original Carnegie entrance was ceremoniously reopened to the public, reconnecting Rhinelander to the architectural heart of its library. In a fitting twist of history, the library was supported by a recent $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, part of a nationwide initiative recognizing and assisting original Carnegie libraries.
Rhinelander’s Carnegie story is only one chapter in the book of Northwood’s libraries. Antigo’s 1905 Carnegie building now houses the Langlade County Historical Society Museum. Merrill’s 1911 T. B. Scott Free Library still operates in its original building and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Medford’s 1916 Carnegie building now serves as the Chamber of Commerce. Each of these communities invested early in public learning , and each continues to benefit from that choice today.
Here in Rhinelander, community support remains central. Every Christmas season, the Ced Vig Holiday Book Fund, named for the beloved local educator and lifelong reading advocate, helps purchase new books for the library, carrying forward a tradition of grassroots support that began with those first shelves above the bank.
And today, just as in 1904 and again in 1985, the library is looking ahead. The Rhinelander District Library is currently engaged in a major capital campaign, aiming to expand once more to meet modern needs while preserving the historic Carnegie core that has served the community for 120 years.
From a drafty upstairs room in 1898 to a century-old landmark, Rhinelander’s library stands as a testament to vision, persistence, and the belief that knowledge should always have a home in the Northwoods.
Sources: Rhinelander Daily News, Carnegie Corporation, the Rhinelander District Library.
