*Josiah Reade

   Born:   1830

  Died:  1929

*  Was village president

*  Started the first library in Lombard

*  Donated 3,000 books to the Plum Library
 
 

This" Prairie School" design house was built in 1905. Frank Lloyd Wright was the architect who made the "Prairie School" design famous.  This type of house has horizontal lines.  The houses are decorated in blues and browns that blend in with nature's own colors.

The man who owned the house, Josiah Reade, was an important man in Lombard's history.  He was the second man to be village president.  Josiah Reade also began the first public library in Lombard.  He had a large collection of books and wanted to share them with the townspeople.  As a result, Josiah Reade started using a room at the First Church of Lombard to set up a library.  Each week, Mr. Reade 
would carry a basketful of books over to this room.  People would come to borrow the books from him. 

When Colonel Plum donated his house as a library, Mr. Reade's collection of 3,000 books was moved across the street to the Helen Plum Memorial Library.  Josiah Reade died in 1929 at the age of  99.  When he died, the bell at the church, which had housed his library, was rung 99 times.