The Hayner Public Library District

The Hayner Public Library District. . , The Hayner Public Library District (then known as the Alton Library Association) began in 1852 as a subscription library. "The association is designed to be …a permanent institution of our city, which will every year increase in means and usefulness." During the Civil War, many of the library's books were borrowed by soldiers and never returned. The association fell into massive debt, but the women of Alton banded together to save the library. In 1866, at a public meeting, officers and directors were elected for a reconstituted Alton Library Society housed at City Hall. In 1869, a revolutionary resolution was passed requiring the board of directors to be exclusively comprised of women. Donations, parties, and lectures augmented library membership fees. Famous writers and thinkers, including Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, gave talks to benefit the library. In the late 1880s, John E. Hayner funded a library building as a memorial to his wife, Jennie. The directors hired architect Theodore Link to design the building. In 1891, the Jennie D. Hayner Memorial Library opened. An annex, funded by the Hayner family, was added in 1907. In 1901, thanks to an endowment by John E. Hayner, the library became a truly free library for Alton's citizens. In 1952, the Alton City Council voted unanimously to acquire and operate the Hayner Memorial Library as a public library. In 1972, voters approved a referendum that established the Hayner Public Library district. In 1986, Godfrey and Foster township joined the district.