“What is the Helen M. Plum Library? What is Lilacia Park?” by S.M. O’Connor

The Helen M. Plum Memorial Library, located at 110 West Maple Street in west suburban Lombard, Illinois is the public library of Lombard, Illinois, in west suburban DuPage County. The Helen Plum Memorial Library is across the street from St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and St. John’s Lutheran School on Maple Street and Lincoln Street. The address of the church is 215 South Lincoln Street, Lombard, Illinois 60148. First Church of Lombard’s Maple Street Chapel is on the same side of the street as St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, but is down at the corner, at the corner of Maple and Main Streets. The Helen Plum Memorial Library is also conveniently close to Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Sacred Heart School. The Sacred Heart Parish buildings are on the same side of the street as the library, with the church at the corner of Maple Street and Elizabeth Street. The address of the church is 114 South Elizabeth Street, Lombard, Illinois 60148. One church member of First Church of Lombard, Josiah Reade, a graduate of Amherst who built a house in Lombard in 1905, established the first public library in Lombard in the First Church of Lombard. In order to share access to his large collection of books with his fellow townsfolk, he began to carry a basketful of books over to the church on a weekly basis. His collection of books formed the nucleus of the library collection.[1] For about fifty years, Reade supervised the library.[2] In 1927, Plum Library and Lilacia Park were founded through a bequest of the “Colonel” William Rattle Plum (1845-1927), another member of First Church of Lombard. [3] After he made provisions for his nieces and nephews, Plum bequeathed his home and adjacent lilac gardens to Lombard as a park and library site, along with $25,000 to make the transformation happen.[4] He specified that the library must be named after his late wife. Col. Plum was a widower whose wife had been Helen Plum (nee Williams) (1845-1924). They are both buried in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.[5] Col. Plum, a retired Chicago lawyer and Civil War veteran, had begun collecting lilacs, a kind of flowering bush, in 1910.[6]

Born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on Monday, March 24, 1845, William R. Plum was the youngest of ten children of Henry Plum and Nancy (North) Plum.[7] His family moved north to Massillon, Ohio when he was a toddler, and he grew up to love the Cuyahoga River and the chestnut trees and white ash trees in the area.[8] Young William learnt Morse code at the age of fifteen and the next year he became a telegrapher for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad.[9] He tried to enlist in the Union Army in 1863, but he was physically too small of stature to be an infantryman and the government declined to accept his voluntary service.[10] Later, the U.S. Telegraph Service accepted him, and he often worked close to the front lines, especially in Kentucky.[11] Sometimes, his dispatches went directly to President Abraham Lincoln.[12] In the wake of the Civil War, W.R. Plum worked his way through Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, as manager of the telegraph office in New Haven.[13] Subsequently, he was admitted to the bar in 1867; wed Helen Maria Williams of Ledyard, New York; moved west to Chicago; and purchased the Widow Harris property, two-and-a-half acres in Babcock’s Grove at the intersection of Park Avenue and Maple Street.[14] The former Harris house was soon cramped with all of the furniture the Plums brought with them and Col. Plum had to remodel it to accommodate all of their possessions.[15] In 1882, he was inducted into the Society of United States Military Telegraph Corps,[16] which was a Union Army veterans group like the Grand Army of the Republic. He was not truly a colonel, but was addressed as such as an honorific.[17] In 1900, he retired from the practice of the law.[18] On a visit to the Lemoine Lilac Gardens in Nancy, France, William & Helen Plum acquired two French hybrid lilac cuttings which they planted in his garden in Lombard.[19] They also acquired a silver poplar from the famous Black Forest in Germany (then the German Empire) and planted it in front of their home.[20] Before Helen’s death in 1924, the Plums had visited all forty-eight states then in the Union, Mexico, Canada, and seventeen European countries and empires.[21] His lilac garden, with over 200 varieties of lilac, became known as Lilacia.[22] In 1925, the director of the Lemoine Lilac Gardens wrote Plum, “[N]obody grows in Europe a complete collection of lilacs. You have probably the largest in the world; more than [Harvard’s] Arnold Arboretum and the public parks of Rochester, New York.”[23]

On Monday, September 26, 1927, as a result of Plum’s bequest, the Lombard Park District was established by court order.[24] The Union Pacific Railroad and Metra continue to operate trains on the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad right-of-way that runs behind Lilacia Park.[25] They are separated by Parkside Avenue. William Ralph Plum, nephew of Col. Plum, headed the Lombard Park District, which solicited designs for Lilalcia Park from landscape architects.[26]

In May of 1928, the Lombard Park District Board accepted the design offered by Jens Jensen (1860-1951).[27] Jensen was one of the founding fathers of both the Chicago Park District and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.[28] Previously, he had designed the American Garden in Union Park (1888) in Chicago’s Near West Community Area, Garfield Park (1905) in East Garfield Park on Chicago’s West Side, the rose garden and boathouse in Humboldt Park (1905) in Humboldt Park on Chicago’s West Side, Washington Square Park (1906) on Chicago’s Near North Side, Franklin Park (1916) on Chicago’s West Side, Columbus Park (1920) in Austin on Chicago’s West Side, and Cragin Park (1921) in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side.[29] In 1895, the West Park Commission had promoted him to Superintendent of Union Park, and the next year appointed him to Superintendent of Humboldt Park, but dismissed him in 1900 because of his refusal to participate in graft, yet he remained a member of the Special Park Commission.[30] [The West Park District later merged with Chicago’s other park districts to form the Chicago Park District during the Great Depression.] Between 1906 and 1909, he had served as Superintendent and Landscape Architect of the West Park Commission.[31]

Between 1927 and 1929, the Lombard Park District acquired additional land for Lilalcia Park at an expense of $67,000.[32] Later, the Lombard Park District acquired three more acres of land west of Lilacia Park to add to it, which brought it to seven-and-a-half acres by 1958.[33]

The Lombard Park District board members had feared they could not afford Jensen’s services and asked how much he would charge.[34] He smiled and said he would do it for $600.[35] In July of 1928, the Lombard Park District commissioned Jensen, to create Lilacia Park.[36] In addition to the $600 fee, Jensen and his wife, Anne Marie, lived in the former Plum house and Ann Marie Jensen became the town librarian.[37] Mrs. Jensen kept the Helen Plum Memorial Library open for two hours per day, four days per week.[38] After Col. Plum donated his residence to house the town library, Mr. Reade’s collection of 3,000 books was moved across the street from the church into the new Helen Plum Memorial Library. Thus, the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library was born.

The Lombard Park District introduced Jensen to Lombard residents at a ceremony at Lincoln School on St. Charles Road on Friday, May 24, 1929.[39] The Lombard Park District renovated Col. Plum’s former coach house as the Lombard Park District Administration Building to become Jensen’s office and a meeting room for the board.[40] Jensen imported 40,000 tulip bulbs from The Netherlands for Lilacia Park and every year approximately 25,000 tulips bloom in Lilacia Park.[41]

Figure 2 Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: The Lombard Historical Society now has a window display in Yorktown Shopping Center in west suburban Lombard, IL.

Plum Memorial Library, Part I: 1927-2010[42]

The current building is the second iteration of the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library. The Helen Plum Memorial Library Board of Trustees would dearly love to build a third iteration of the Plum Memorial Library because they were advised over ten years ago they needed to more than double in size to provide optimum service to the community. The Helen M. Plum Memorial Library opened in the Plum home on Park Avenue in 1928. From 1928 to 1962, the Library was housed in Col. Plum’s former residence on Park Avenue. Established in 1929, Friends of the Helen Plum Library has given financial assistance to the library for decades, as a result of which the library has been able to acquire many volumes and provide services it could not otherwise afford. The Friends of the Helen Plum Library raise funds through two annual second-hand book sales, as well as from membership dues. The Library Board obtained the current library site at 110 West Maple in a land trade with the Lombard Park District so the Helen Plum Memorial Library Board of Trustees would be free to construct a new two-story-tall library building on Maple Street.

A 12,000-square-foot, two-story-tall library building was completed and opened in 1963, and the Plum residence was demolished. In a 1976 referendum, voters authorized raising money to pay for an addition to the new library building. It also increased the maximum allowable tax rate to 25 cents per $100 of assessed real estate valuation. This was the last library tax increase. In 1978, the 22,300-square-foot addition to the library building was completed. It is west and north of the original 1963 building. The current 34,300-square-foot library building has Adult and Young People’s Services on the ground floor, offices and meeting space on the second floor, and a spacious meeting room in the basement.

Lilacia Park lost land to the 1978 library addition, and in exchange the Park District received 1,825 square feet of office space in the new building. The Lombard Park District moved into offices on the second floor, and remained there for about twenty years until September of 1998.[43] The second floor office space was subsequently occupied by the library organization and converted to a combination of office, meeting and training spaces.

In 1980, the Library and Park Boards signed a perpetual intergovernmental agreement. It stated neither party could build anything in the air space over the addition, without the other party’s written permission. This means that a prerequisite for any further expansion of the Plum Library upward, into that air space, would be the prior permission of the Park District. The Lombard Park District also owns the driveway adjacent the library’s west edge, so building over (or under) the driveway, or the incorporation of it into new building plans, would require the approval of the Park District.

Plum Memorial Library, Part II: Expansion Plans[44]

In 1999 – 2000, a citizen’s committee created a long-range plan that called for the library to gain more space, yet remain within Lombard’s downtown area, and the Helen Plum Memorial Library Board of Trustees considered adaptive reuse of the DuPage Theater, but concluded it was unsuitable and too small. Over the summer of 2000, the Library Board investigated properties on Main Street north of Maple, and had an architectural firm examine other sites in town, but all of them proved to either unsuitable or unavailable. As the Library Board preferred the library’s parking be all on the street level, a five-acre site was required. In November of 2000, the Library Board purchased a house and driveway at 126 Maple, as well as an adjacent vacant lot, to the west of the library building.

In February of 2001, the Library Board accepted a space needs study submitted by Library Planning Associates, which suggested the library needed a 79,000 square foot building to serve for at least the next 20 years. Elgin-based architectural firm Burnidge, Cassell & Associates, Inc. (now PSA-Dewberry/BCA) suggested in May of 2002 the library do one of three things to expansion on the current site: (1) build an addition to the current building, (2) partially tear down the current building and build an addition, and (3) completely teardown and replace the current building. Having concluded the first and second options were not cost-effective, the Library Board chose the third option.

In June and July of 2002, there were two public forums to introduce expansion plans on the current site, and potential costs thereof, to Lombard residents. In August of 2002, Lombard Village President Bill Mueller suggested that the Library Board consider building the new library on the site of the commuter parking lot at Maple and Park, a proposal he had made a few years earlier in a public speech. From August of 2002 until May of 2003, the Library Board worked with the Village of Lombard to try to develop a plan to erect a new library building on the site of the commuter parking lot at Maple and Park, while also finding sufficient nearby parking. In June of 2003, the Library Board terminated these discussions with the village government, due to a lack of sufficient space for the proposed library building, and the fact the loss of the parking lot would have resulted in inadequate parking. That same month, the Lombard Park Board offered the Library Board Southland Park, an offer which the Library Board was forced to decline because the site was too distant from the center of town, as well as baseball and parking issues. The next month, architects in the employ of the Library Board developed “a conceptual scheme for a new building on the current site, to entirely replace the existing building.”

On Tuesday, September 23, 2003, the Lombard Park Board gave tentative approval to a proposal by the Library Board to erect a new 79,000-square-foot building on the current library site, using the air spaces over the current building owned by the Park Board. It is incumbent on the two governments to negotiate an intergovernmental agreement. In addition, the demos (electorate) must pass a referendum to pay for construction costs.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2003, the Library Board hired CRM Associates of Long Grove to estimate the cost of constructing a new library building. A little over a month later, on Tuesday, November 17, 2003, a public hearing was held before the Lombard Plan Commission on the library’s plans, and every member of the Lombard Plan Commission voted in favor of recommending that the Village Board approve those plans, “with minor changes concerning west end setbacks, landscaping and parking lot signage.” On Thursday, December 18, 2003, plans for the new library building were presented to the Lombard Village Board, which approved the placement of two referenda on the ballet. One referendum asked voters “for $23,500,000 to build a new library, including demolition, construction, furniture and equipment, fees, surveys, rental of temporary quarters, and reimbursable costs.” The other referendum asked voters “for an increase in 6 cents in the operating tax rate ceiling, to provide more funding to operate a larger library.”

A little less than one month later, on Thursday, January 15, 2004, the Village Board voted unanimously to approve the library’s building plans as a “planned unit development,” which meant “they approve a number of zoning and building code variances to permit construction of the building.” In February of 2004, TV6 ran a 15-minute-long program with Library Board President Linda Dickey and Library Director Bob Harris. Both referenda questions were defeated at the election held on March 16^th. In July of 2004, the Library Board inquired of the Park Board what was necessary for the Park Board to approve the construction of a larger library building on the current site. The Park Board suggested the Library Board reduce the plan for the new building from 79,000 square feet to 50,000 or 60,000 square feet. The Park Board also reiterated its offer to transfer less than three acres of land in Southland Park in exchange for the Library Board’s properties on Maple Street. In December, the Library Board rejected the Park Board’s suggestion of trimming the building size down to 50,000 or 60,000 square feet, in the belief it would be insufficient.

In January of 2005, the Library Board met with the Park Board and demonstrated that a new library building would improve the Park Board’s driveway access and have no impact on Lilacia Park. The Library Board asked the Park Board if they would consider a new library building that would be eleven feet higher than the existing library building, and the Park Board voted “no.” In February of 2005, the Library Board received a one-year-long extension on the Planned Unit Development. In June, the Library Board wrote the Village of Lombard, and asked to be included in planning meetings that dealt with downtown Lombard, including, but not limited to, the DuPage Theater site. In July, the Library Board wrote to the Village of Lombard again, this time to clarify that the Library Board wanted to explore the possible use of the DuPage Theater site for a new library. President Mueller responded verbally in August. In September, the Plum Library had photographs taken from various points in Lilacia Park, all of them facing northward, to demonstrate the Plum Library is invisible from most vantage points in Lilacia Park. In December, the Library received another one-year-long extension of the Planned Unit Development.

On Monday, March 27, 2006, the Library Board presented to the Park Board a detailed proposal, with costs, to allow for creation of a new driveway into Lilacia Park at the west end of the Plum Library-owned vacant lot at 130 West Maple. From April to July in 2006, the plan to move the driveway was refined, and approved by Lombard Village staff. In August, the Plum Library’s attorney crafted an intergovernmental agreement for both Boards to sign, allowing for the land swap to exchange driveway properties, with discussions ongoing until October. That month, the Park Board suggested the Library Board wait to build the new driveway until construction of the new library began. The Park Board also asked for a seven-year sunset clause, that the addition to the existent library building be no more than two stories, and for clarification as to driveway maintenance.

In April of 2007, the Library Board passed a resolution on site selection. To ensure “all possibilities for space utilization” were entertained, as well as to be certain that the optimal capacity of the existent library building be used, the Library Board hired Jack Hedge of DesignGroup to develop a reorganization plan for the existent building. In June, July, and September, Hedge met with the Library Board of Trustees and staff members to discuss building reorganization. In July and August, the Library Board and Park Board held two joint meetings at, respectively, Sunset Knoll and the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library on the Intergovernmental Agreement. The Library Board hired DesignGroup to develop conceptual plans for an expansion at 126/130 W. Maple.

In November of 2007, the Library Board of Trustees and Park Board of Commissioners signed the Intergovernmental Agreement, the Library Board accepted DesignGroup’s report on building reorganization, and the Library Board received DesignGroup’s report on 8 conceptual plans for expansion at 126/130 W. Maple. In April of 2008, the Library Board and Park Board closed on a land swap, that exchanged ownership of the Park Board’s driveway into Lilacia Park with a piece of land along the west and north edges of 126/130 W. Maple, on which a new driveway into the site could be built. In May, the Library Board hired DesignGroup to implement a 12-part plan to reorganize the library building, and Pruehs Associates to do a feasibility study for private fundraising for the building reorganization. Greater public use of the second floor was not really an option, because it was already in heavy use. It was home to the Technical Processing Department, where thirteen people ordered and cataloged materials, computer support, the Business Office, the Library Director’s office, and two meeting rooms used for Internet training and children’s programs, as well as meetings. The library’s phone survey indicated 77% of Lombard residents wanted to either keep the library status quo or for the Library Board to build a new library building on the site of the current one (or some other downtown site).

Plum Memorial Library, Part III: Expanding the Library

A 2015 assessment of the building revealed it would cost $8,000,000 to replace the old H.V.A.C. (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) system, conduct structural repairs, and make some “basic renovations,” yet that would not have added any space to the building.[45] In 2016, the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library had $1,000,000 in Special and Reserve Capital funds.[46] On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 53% of voters in a plebiscite approved a tax increase to pay for the construction of a larger library building, temporary relocation while construction of the third library building on the site of the first and second library buildings took place, larger collections, new furnishings, new technology, and more programs. This is called the Helen Plum’s Building & Services Improvement Project.[47] The Library Board of Commissioners requested somewhat less money, $22,300,000 instead of $23,500,000.[48] The Proposition the Library Board of Trustees put before voters was to increase the property tax rate by .216% to fund a $22,300,000 loan with a twenty-year-long term, as well as higher operating expenses and capital reserves.[49] Homeowners could expect a property tax increase of approximately $72 per year or $6 per month for every $100,000 of a home’s fair market value.[50]

In September of 2017, the Daily Herald’s Robert Sanchez reported that Library Board President Jason Brandt explicated that the new Helen M. Plum Memorial Library would not be built in a different location because they wanted to maintain the unity of the Plum Library and Lilalcia Park, hold down costs, and keep the Plum Library downtown.[51] Firstly, they wanted to continue honoring Col. Plum’s desire that the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library and Lilacia Park be “treated as a unit.”[52] Secondly, they feared if they built the new Plum Library building somewhere else, it would drive up costs because they would also have to build a parking lot.[53] Thirdly, if they built the new Plum Library building in Lombard Common or some other location, it would no longer be downtown.[54]

The reason construction has not started yet is because of a dispute over air rights above Lilacia Park between the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library Board of Trustees and the Lombard Park District Board of Commissioners, as Robert Sanchez reported.[55] The Lombard Park District proved unwilling to give permission to construct a library building over one story tall on land that was formerly part of Lilacia Park.[56] In September of 2017, Helen M. Plum Memorial Library officials offered what they hoped was a library building design the Lombard Park District Board of Commissioners would accept, but they were to be disappointed.[57] Consequently, on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library Board of Trustees approved a plan for a new library building that consisted of two linked pavilions, one for public use and one for staff use but it would cost more than the sum of $22,300,000 approved by voters.[58] The Lombard Park District retained air rights over Lilacia Park when it gave land to the Helem M. Plum Memorial Library when it built the second library building in 1963 and expanded it in 1977.[59] As part of the 1977 agreement, the roof of the library addition was turned into a plaza that overlooks Lilacia Park, and while the plaza belongs to the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library, the air space above it belongs to the Lombard Park District.[60] Under the new plan, the two pavilions would have a combined 50,000 square feet of space, and the plaza would be rebuilt.[61] The west pavilion would have two floors devoted to office space and storage, as well as a drive-through window, while the east pavilion would have two floors on land the Helen M. Plum Library owns outright but only one floor on land where the Lombard Public Library retained air rights.[62] The two pavilions would be connected by an enclosed walkway that would be used primarily if not exclusively by staff members.[63] This plan would also require easements from the Lombard Park District Board of Commissioners.[64]

On Tuesday, October 17, 2017, the Daily Herald Business Ledger published a letter from Robert Biddle in which he argued the tax increase should be nullified because a year after voters had approved it no progress had been made.[65] He wrote, in part, “The library was given a tremendous opportunity to build a state of the art facility whether within the clearly known constraints of their current Maple Street site or at three nearby options (if only they would pull the trigger) at Lombard Common, 101 S. Main, or the old Z’s property. And what do they come back with now? An even more expensive two building plan connected by an outdoor walkway where the staff facility will have spectacular views of Lilacia Park and the public areas will reside mainly in a subterranean building with a patio. And yet even this plan needs variances and easements from the park district that surely will not be granted.”[66]

On Wednesday, January 3, 2018, Robert Sanchez reported in the Daily Herald that Biddle and other Lombard residents had collected hundreds of signatures out of at least 2,900 they sought for a petition to hold a referendum to end the tax increase.[67] Library officials told Sanchez attorneys assured them that if the referendum was held it would only be advisory in nature.[68] Biddle insisted the referendum would be binding (either way) and Ben Silver, a lawyer for the Citizens Advisory Center, government watchdog group in Elmhurst, Illinois.[69]

Barb Kruser is the Executive Director of the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library. She has held this job since August of 2014. Previously, she was Assistant Director of the Niles-Maine District Library. She earned her M.L.S. degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1988.

Claudia Krauspe is the Assistant Director and Interim Adult Services Manager. Sue Kehoe Wilsey is the Support Services and Communications Director. Abbe Luzeniecki is the Youth Services Manager. Karen Kee is the Circulation Services Manager. Alex Vancina is the I.T. Services Manager. Julie Adamski is the Technical Services Manager. Phil Lucas is the Facility and Security Services Manager. Kristie Leslie is the Marketing Coordinator & Webmaster.

The Helen M. Plum Memorial Library is open from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The phone number is (630) 627-0316 and the fax number is (630) 627-0336. The Website is www.helenplum.org.

Lombard Lilac Time is a lilac-themed annual festival held every May in Lilacia Park. The next Lombard Lilac Time is May 4-20, 2018. This is a chance to see more than 700 lilacs and 25,000 tulips in Lilacia Park. The Lilac Time Arts & Crafts Fair will be in downtown Lombard, down the street from Lilacia Park, on Sunday, May 6, 2018 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

[1] Patricia A. Wallace, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – – Nomination Form, 17 June, 1977, p. 8

[2] Wallace, 8

[3] Lombard Historical Society, Lombard’s Lilac Time. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing (2010), pages 8-23