After contentious debate, the library board chose the southeast corner of Main and Seventh streets as the site for its new building. The site was purchased from Mary E. Hall in 1902. The farmhouse that formerly stood there was sold and moved. A number of plans for the building were submitted, and the one chosen was a design by John Mauran, a two-story stone and brick building in the Beaux-Arts style. The plans were presented at the convention of the Western Library Association in August 1902, where it was declared "The Library Beautiful". The building's cornerstone was laid on May 30, 1903, in a ceremony featuring judge Charles E. Dyer. Construction was contracted to A.H. Harcus and Co., and it opened to the public unceremoniously on March 16, 1904. At the time of the library's opening, it held 97,000 books in its collection. Its ground floor featured two reading rooms, with a small auditorium and museum upstairs, and newspaper archives in the basement. Even this building, however, was insufficient before long, and the library was augmented with the opening of a branch in 1914, which had a higher circulation than the main building in the following year. Some of the library's collection was also housed in the libraries of the city's public schools. By 1929, the building had been called "outgrown", and proposals for a replacement in 1934 were inspired by the New Deal's public works programs. Architects Kirchoff & Rose submitted a plan that year for a large five-story building on that site, which the PWA approved but which was never built. Efforts to replace the Racine Public Library were renewed in 1954, with the city council approving the proposal to build in Memorial Park, although cost concerns reduced the size of the planned building. After the new library building opened on May 18, 1958, the old building was left vacant. Over 75,000 books were moved from the old library to the new in a single day. Various uses were proposed for it, including making it part of the University of Wisconsin–Racine campus or administrative offices for the Racine Unified School District. The Racine County Historical Society, then outgrowing its existing space in the county courthouse, held a campaign in 1960 to gain funding to buy the building. The Racine County Museum opened May 18, 1962. The museum remained a separate entity from the Historical Society, with which it shared the building, until they merged in 1982. A large addition on the east side of the building was constructed in 1989.