Mission & History

The Fox Lake Public Library District is dedicated to providing all community members access to available information and resources they need in a safe, welcoming, and comfortable environment.

The Fox Lake District Library has a rich history of serving the communities of Fox Lake and Grant Township. It was established in 1939 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project #80032, with the Village of Fox Lake and the Fox Lake Women's Club as cosponsors. The project was initiated with a donation of 1,200 volumes from the Fox Lake Women's Club, which agreed to serve as the local sponsor without pay. The library’s first location was in the office of the Nagel Lumber Yard on Grand Avenue in the heart of Fox Lake.

Taxpayer support for the library began in 1944, and the library moved to the Krec Building, now the site of the Dollar General store, farther east on Grand Avenue from its original location.

In the 1960s, a door-to-door fundraising campaign by the library board secured a down payment for the original 1,800-square-foot library building at its current site, 255 East Grand Avenue in Fox Lake.

In 1975, a referendum converted the library from a village library to a district library, expanding its service area beyond the boundaries of the Village of Fox Lake. A year later, most of Grant Township was annexed into the district, following voter approval by referendum. Under the leadership of Head Librarian Harry J. Bork, the board of trustees secured a federal building grant of over $745,000, which funded a 15,000-square-foot expansion. This included moving and reconstructing the main entrance to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and greatly expanding the parking lot.

On April 27, 2010, the first phase of a new library building opened to the public next to the original site. The 45,000-square-foot facility was completed in December 2010 and offers expanded Adult and Youth Departments, a large public computer area, quiet study and reading rooms, a Young Adult area, a large public meeting room, an internet café, a children’s story garden, and a Friends of the Library Book Sale Room.

The Fox Lake District Library now serves most of Grant Township, Illinois, with a total service population of 25,284 people* in Fox Lake, Ingleside, and portions of Lakemoor, Round Lake, Spring Grove, Volo, in addition to small portions of Antioch and Burton Townships.

*2010 census