Ida Rupp Public Library - Linda Higgins

The Ida Rupp Public Library, located at 310 Madison Street, is truly a star of our community. The services offered to us, free of cost, are numerous and of excellent quality. Our first library was established by the Ladies’ Literary and Social Club. The club was organized in 1881 and met in members’ homes. Members had been purchasing reference books for their own use, and then presenting them to the school library. In 1908, the group decided to create their own library with the books they purchased. Mrs. George Hyde, a member of the organization, offered a room at her home at 313 East Second Street. A committee of three members, Mrs. William E. Bense, Mrs. S. A. Magruder and Mrs. George Sloan, was chosen to manage the library.

By 1912, the need for a larger, and public, library became apparent. The women’s clubs of Port Clinton collaborated to raise money for the project. In February 1913, our first public library opened to the public in two rooms of City Hall. The new library board was composed of the Literary and Social Club’s management committee, Coterie’s Mrs. Lillian McRitchie, ‘88 Circle’s Mrs. Joe Payne, and Fortnightly’s Mary Hesselbart. The first librarian was Ida Roth. She worked with the board to manage the school library’s contribution of 400 books, and those books and monetary donations from individuals, clubs, lodges, and Bay and Portage townships.

The Board of Education took over management of the library in 1922. A levy was presented to provide for the library’s permanent maintenance. The library was given City Hall’s auditorium

for library use in 1928, all but guaranteeing the library’s growth.

This “school district library” was not to move for forty-one years. Through 1961, the Port Clinton High School library operated as a branch of the library, but moved from use only by Port Clinton village residents to use by residents of Portage, Catawba, and Erie townships. County and state funding eventually added to local contributions, and the library became a County Extension Library, literally extending its reach to all parts of Ottawa County. By 1958, a bookmobile service was added.

A member of the early Literary and Social Club, and a member of the Library Board, Ida Rupp died in 1926. Her widower, Judge Lawrence C. Rupp, lived until 1964. Upon his death, he memorialized his late wife with a $42,000 gift toward a new library building. A $175,000 levy was approved for this new library, to be built on property previously owned by Dr. Paul de la Barre.

The Erie Islands Library became part of our library system in 1983, servicing both the Put-In-Bay schools and the residents of Put-In-Bay and the Erie Islands. In 1999, adjacent grounds in Port Clinton, including a city alley, were acquired for parking and a reading garden. The Friends of the Library funded the renovation of the library front in 2013, as well as the purchase of the Collins property to the west for future expansion and/or green space. The Marblehead Peninsula Branch opened in 2017.

The Ida Rupp Public Library now serves Port Clinton, Marblehead, Catawba Island, Put-In-Bay, the Lake Erie Islands, Lakeside, as well as Bay, Portage, and Danbury Townships. In just over a century, its growth has been solid. It has evolved from a generous woman’s room in her home to an ever-expanding source of knowledge and social vitality. The library embodies the essence of community that Port Clinton has possessed since before its inception.