Hallettsville Public Library
Hallettsville, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as 1893, the citizens of Lavaca County expressed an interest in establishing a county library. In September 1932, two local citizens, Mrs. Harvey Renger and Miss Evelyn Lacy, organized a rental library known as the “Library Nook” to supply the people of Hallettsville with the best books at the lowest cost. The nook was open every day in the East Building across from the East Hotel. In 1937, the Hallettsville Reading Club was founded by ten local ladies who shared their love of books. In January 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) agreed to furnish the labor to help care for a local library. In February 1938, members of the Reading Club appeared before the Chamber of Commerce offering the help of the Reading Club in securing a community library. The chamber voted to contribute $1.50 per month for one year. The Rotary Club sponsored the library, the community supplied the books and the WPA hired a librarian to catalog the books. On June 9, 1938, the Lavaca County Library officially opened to the public in a small room in the old Hallettsville City Hall (now the volunteer fire department station). The library continued under very meager resources and was able to offer services to rural schools. In the early 1960s, the community recognized the financial difficulties the Reading Club faced in operating the library and responded with support. On March 20, 1966, the Friench Simpson Memorial Library was dedicated and opened to the public. The library was named for Friench Simpson (1848-1923), local lawyer, banker, author, state senator and the father of J.H. Simpson, Sr.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lavaca County's hunger for books ran back to 1893, but the modern library began in 1932 when two local women opened a rental "Library Nook" offering the best books at the lowest cost. A Reading Club, the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce, and New Deal WPA labor combined to open the county's public library in a city hall room in 1938, serving even rural schools on meager means. In 1966 the community dedicated the Friench Simpson Memorial Library, named for a local lawyer, banker, and state senator.
Why it matters
It captures how volunteer women's clubs and Depression-era federal programs together built the free public libraries that democratized reading in small-town America.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Friench Simpson
- · Evelyn Lacy
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Alma Male and Female Institute
Hallettsville, TX
When Hallettsville became the Lavaca County seat in 1852, town founder Margaret Hallett set aside land for a courthouse, a church, and a school. On that school lot a joint-stock company opened the Alma Female Institute in 1853, a two-story wooden academy teaching classical languages, literature, mathematics, science, and music; it soon admitted boys and became the Alma Male and Female Institute. Funding troubles and mismanagement closed it during the Civil War, and the building later served as a hotel and family home before vanishing entirely.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Hallettsville, TX
Sacred Heart began as a mission of St. Mary's parish, ministered to by the Rev. John Anthony Forest, who held early services in the homes of recently arrived European immigrants. Collatinus and Mary Jane Hallet Ballard donated land in 1869, construction started in 1873, and the completed 1882 building made Sacred Heart a full parish. That same year the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament opened Sacred Heart Academy on the grounds, and Father Forest later left to become bishop of San Antonio.
Radhost School
Hallettsville, TX
The farming community of Radhost was settled largely by Czech immigrants, who funded a school that opened in 1873. It began as a one-teacher school taught in the Bohemian language and grew into a two-classroom English school with a new building in 1930. Serving grades one through ten, its calendar bent to the rhythms of farm life, beginning each year only after the crops were harvested, until it was annexed by the Hallettsville district in 1955.
Vysehrad School
Hallettsville, TX
Established in 1887, Vysehrad School took its name—meaning "high castle"—from the Czech heritage of the farming families who settled Lavaca County. Frank Jakubik taught the first classes before the original building burned in 1905 and was replaced by a two-room schoolhouse. Through decades of growth and consolidation with neighboring schools, Vysehrad endured as an independent district serving more than thirty square miles.