Warder Public Library

Reverse reads: "Clark Co., Springfield, O. April 28, 1937. Warder Public Library, S.W. corner of High and Spring Sts. is a red sandstone building of Romanesque design, given to Springfield in 1890 by Benjamin Warder." This photograph shows the Warder Public Library, located at 137 East High Street, on the southwest corner of Spring Street in Springfield, Ohio. In the late 1800s, Benjamin H. Warder commissioned the firm of Shipley, Rutan and Coolidge to construct a building for Springfield's Free Public Library. Like the Bushnell house located further east on High Street, the Warder Library was built in the Richardson Romanesque style from Ohio buff stone and trimmed with brown Worcester stone. The library featured a large reading room heated by a massive stone fireplace at one end measuring 18 feet high and 12.5 feet across. The building was dedicated in 1890 and housed the library until 1989, when the new main branch of the Clark County Public Library was opened at 201 South Fountain Avenue. The Warder building continued to be used as the Clark County (Warder) Literacy Center. The main library moved to its new facility on Fountain Avenue in 1989, and is now called the Clark County Public Library. The library has five locations throughout Clark County. It also has two bookmobiles that cover 41 community stops, 7 schools, 14 daycare centers and 5 Head Start Programs. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978