L. D. Fargo Public Library

The L. D. Fargo Public Library is a historic public library at 120 E. Madison Street in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.

L. D. Fargo Public Library
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
L. D. Fargo Public Library
Location	120 E. Madison St., Lake Mills, Wisconsin
Coordinates	43°04′51″N 88°54′38″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1899-1902
Architect	Ferry & Clas/L.A. Giles
Architectural style	Late Gothic Revival/Storybook
NRHP reference No.	82000675[1]
Added to NRHP	January 18, 1982

History

Businessman Lorenzo Dow Fargo donated funds for the library to Lake Mills in 1899; the building was completed in 1902. Prolific Milwaukee architects George Ferry and Alfred Clas, who also designed several other Wisconsin libraries, designed the library; Ferry went on to serve on the library's board. The library's design incorporates elements of Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival architecture. The two-story building has a rough fieldstone exterior, a projecting entrance block with a bargeboard roof above the entrance, four steep dormers with matching bargeboard on the front facade, and a steeple atop the gable roof. When it opened, the library became a local community center as well, and both the local women's club and the city's branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union used it as their headquarters.^[2]

The library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and on the State Register of Historic Places in 1989.^[3] It is still in use as the city's public library.