The Library Movement in Marshall
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Twenty-five Marshall ladies formed the Ingleside Circulating Book Club in 1887, each member buying a book and making exchanges. When that club and four others organized a federation in 1899, their first civic goal was a city library. Use of a feed store loft was donated by the federation president and her husband. The library opened in 1900 with 174 books and with hay-bales for chairs. After a charter was obtained Oct. 24, 1902, the library moved to the City Hall, where it operated until a 1923 fire. At the City Hall, $1-a-year reading tickets gave admission to the public. these tickets plus funds raised by the clubwomen provided 69 years of city library services without the use of public tax revenues. This graceful Georgian structure was built after the clubs worked on funding for over 20 years and after the City Hall fire. Erected in 1926 at cost of $34,046.93, it was ideal in its appointments at that time, but was later outgrown. Finally the city was persuaded to support a municipal library, and on Oct. 28, 1971, the clubwomen handed over the keys to their building, books, and furniture. On completion of a new, larger city library facility in 1973, this building came to house other civic endeavors.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1887 twenty-five Marshall women formed the Ingleside Circulating Book Club, each buying a book to trade with the others; when they and four other clubs federated in 1899, their first civic goal was a public library. It opened in 1900 with 174 books and hay bales for chairs, later moving into City Hall, where dollar-a-year reading tickets funded the shelves. For sixty-nine years the clubwomen ran library service with no public tax money, built this Georgian building in 1926, and finally handed the keys to the city in 1971.
Why it matters
Marshall's library is a striking example of how women's voluntary clubs built the civic and cultural infrastructure of American towns long before governments took up the task.
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