The Ansel B. Cook House, is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

Libertyville, Illinois Libertyville is a village in Libertyville Township, Lake County, Illinois, Libertyville Township, Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located west of Lake Michigan, approximately 40 miles north of the Chicago Loop. As such, it is part o ...

, United States. It was built as a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

house for contractor and politician Ansel B. Cook in 1878. In his will, Cook donated the home to be used as a public library, although it remained for many years the residence of Cook's longer-lived widow. After Emily Barrows Cook's death, the building received a major Neoclassical renovation that converted it into a library, opening to the public in 1921. By the 1960s the library had outgrown the space available, and voters approved a referendum to construct a new library. The new facility of what is now the

Cook Memorial Public Library District The Cook Memorial Public Library District (CMPLD) serves communities in Lake County, Illinois: Libertyville, Green Oaks, Vernon Hills, Indian Creek, Mettawa, and parts of Mundelein. There are two full-service library facilities: Cook Park Li ...

opened directly behind the Cook House in 1968. The building was listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2001. Today the Libertyville–Mundelein Historical Society operates the house as a Victorian house museum.

References

External links

Ansel B. Cook House
{{authority control Historic house museums in Illinois Houses completed in 1878 Houses in Lake County, Illinois Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Libertyville, Illinois Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Museums in Lake County, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Illinois Public libraries in Illinois