5. Pekin Public Library
Site Coordinates: N 40˚34'01.3" W 89˚38'54.9"
Your Clue: "There is a sculpture by the main entrance. To find the letter clue you need, count how many letters are in the sculpture’s title shown in quotes on the plaque's description. Find the corresponding letter in the alphabet using the key below."
These informational sites along with 10 cache sites placed around Pekin will provide letters or numbers you'll need to unscramble a prominent name and important year in Pekin's history. Once you've unscrambled the name and year, submit your answer to be entered into a drawing for a one-of-a-kind, locally 3-D printed "flat" Everett, $50 in Chamber checks & some official Pekin swag!
Please be courteous and respectful of your surroundings! We hope you enjoy this historic tour of Pekin & participate in other events throughout 2024 to celebrate this milestone.
If you have any questions, please email us at pekinhistoricadventurequest@gmail.com.
A Bit of History...
Looking back over 155 years of Pekin library history
Prior to the construction of the current library in 1972, Pekin’s readers were served by a smaller structure that stood at the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway. When the old library was demolished, its former site became a sunken plaza, but since the 2015 remodel and expansion of the library, the old sunken plaza is no more, replaced by a quiet reading room and a grove of trees with water drainage.
That earlier library structure – one of the nation’s many Carnegie libraries, built in 1902 under the patronage of famous American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie – was the first building constructed in Pekin to serve specifically as a public library. In 1900, Miss Mary Elizabeth Gaither (1852-1945) had written to both Carnegie and to Pekin banker George Herget, seeking their support for the construction of a library building. Carnegie agreed to provide funds, and Herget donated land to the city to provide a site for the new library, and Bloomington architect Paul O. Moratz was hired to design it.
