We had to stop when we spotted the castle-like Brumback Library, with its turreted towers and red clay Ludowici roof tiles.

The library, named for benefactor John Sanford Brumback, is an impressive Gothic-Romanesque-style building of Bedford sandstone in a park along Van Wert's Main Street, also known as the Lincoln Highway and the route of America's first transcontinental highway.
Brumback, born in Ohio's Licking County in 1829, lost his father at the age of four. His mother had six young children and 40 acres of undeveloped farmland, and young John developed a solid work ethic and business sense working the farm and taking his family's produce to market.
John left home at the age of 15 with $50 and started a general store in Illinois.
By 1862, he was back in Ohio with a wife and children, using $5,000 in gold to open a dry goods store in Van Wert County near the Indiana state line.
Brumback became a respected businessman and philanthropist as president of an insurance company, and president and major shareholder in the Van Wert National Bank.
In 1890, twelve local women formed the Van Wert Ladies Library Association to establish a 1,400-book subscription library in town. The library became a free public library when the city passed a tax in 1896 for its support.

Brumback felt that all county residents deserved a free public library and pledged the money to make that happen. He got as far as ordering building plans for the project, but became ill and died before seeing the final plans.
Brumback's family built a library in Van Wert County with money in his estate, with the proviso that the county would provide the books and maintain the library.
Toledo architect David L. Stine designed many of the homes in that city's famed Old West End neighborhood and received the commission to design the library. The Brumback family financed construction, sparing no expense to make the building as beautiful and sturdy as possible.

We slipped inside of the library to see the impressive main floor with its cozy sitting area by an open fireplace, a baby grand piano and beautiful architectural touches like massive white pillars and carved-wood trim. I didn't feel it was possible for me to take interior photos without disrupting the quiet of the library that day, but you can see a few interior shots in a virtual tour at the library's site.
An impressive ceremony accompanied the laying of the library's cornerstone in 1899, and the building saw its formal dedication on January 1, 1901.
John Brumback's son, Orville S. Brumback, spearheaded efforts to pass legislation in Ohio approving tax-supported county libraries, and the Brumback Library became the nation's first public county library in the nation.
During the mid-1970s, brother and sister Ellen and Orville Reed, grandchildren of John Brumback, began exploring plans to expand the library. Orville had a long career in the insurance industry and Ellen was the long-time Secretary of the Library's Board of Trustees.
The pair left detailed instructions for an ambitious library renovation and expansion after their deaths about 15 years later.
Architect Clyde Henry of the Columbus, Ohio, firm of McDonald, Cassell and Bassett designed the 10,500-square-foot Reed Memorial Addition, which nearly doubled the space of the library to a total of 19,500 square feet.

Viewing the building up close, you can see how seamlessly the addition really is.
The Brumback Library earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and the Ohio Historical Society recognized is as a historic site in 2001.

Check out another great early twentieth-century Ohio library I discovered in my travels at Sandusky, Ohio, more than Cedar Point and see other Highlights along the Lincoln Highway in Ohio at my latest Discovering Ohio blog post.
Want to learn more about Ohio's architectural gems? Check out Building Ohio: A Traveler's Guide to Ohio's Rural Architecture and Building Ohio: A Traveler's Guide to Ohio's Urban Architecture by Jane Ware.
© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved
I love the architecture. What a gorgeous building to house a library.
Posted by: gypsyscarlett | January 22, 2012 at 12:50 AM
Gypsy-
The interior was pretty spectacular, too. I really wished we had more time so we could just sit by the fireplace and read that day!
Posted by: Dominique King | January 22, 2012 at 04:34 AM