McLEANSBORO - Rising grandly at the corner of Main and Washington streets, the onetime Victorian residence which houses McCoy Memorial Library has been attracting the attention of passers-by for well over a hundred years. "A lot of people who drive by stop and take a look," Brenda Ledford, McCoy's librarian, said recently. "They often say they've been by before and never stopped." Serving the community as a public library since 1921, the building's first floor houses most everything a library patron would expect to find, from stacks of books for adults and children to magazines and newspapers, from microfilm-reading machines to public-access computers. McCoy's second floor is home to a genealogical library and museum, its bookshelves crammed with family histories and other information valuable to genealogy researchers. What sets this library apart, however, is the experience which the building itself presents. For those with an eye for architectural and artistic details, McCoy is a wonder to behold. ... Originally, the structure which now houses a public library was the main residence of Aaron G. and Eleanor Cloud and their two children, Chalon and Mary Ellen. Construction was completed in 1884. The Clouds left the house and its belongings to their daughter, Mary Ellen; she married Chalon Guard McCoy in 1878, and when she died in 1921, she left the house to the city of McLeansboro "to be used expressly as a public library," a tour guide states. Walking from room to room through the two floors of the building open to the public, one has the opportunity for visual discoveries not typical of a public library. Architecturally, the features are many. Each room has its own unique fireplace utilizing elaborate tile work imported from Europe. There are large - and in some cases curved-glass - windows and finely stained woodwork throughout the house. Beyond the building itself, artwork and furnishings displayed throughout the library offer a sense of both the era in which the house was built and of its former residents. Many of the paintings were by Mrs. McCoy herself; sculptures on upper ledges in what was once the home's reception room were original furnishings of the house. Displays throughout the library touch on local history, such as a case containing artifacts relating to the Lindell Hotel, which was located on the northeast corner of McLeansboro's square, where Dairy Queen now stands. And apparently, the onetime home contains historical treasures still to be unearthed by its current caretakers. Recently, Marion Russell, a volunteer at the genealogical library and museum, found a large, locked wooden box in a second-floor closet; the box contained a number of old tools, some apparently dating back to the 1860s. ... Maintaining a 128-year-old onetime Victorian mansion is not an inexpensive proposition. The city is undertaking various maintenance and repair projects at the library in 2012, including a brand new roof at a cost of almost $100,000, Mayor Dick Deitz said. A pair of grants will cover about $60,000 of that cost, with the city picking up the rest, he said. "The use of (the library) is one thing, but the historical part ... frankly, I don't know what we would do without it," Deitz said. Editor's note: Much of the historical information in this story about the library is from a "walking tour" guidebook available at the library.