Library History

It took almost half a century for the people of Coryell County to have one of their many dreams come true. In 1970 their dream for a first-class public library became a reality.

In the early 1930's, when the present city hall was constructed, a farsighted city council with the help of the WPA provided space for the first public library which opened in Gatesville in March, 1937. The nucleus of books was provided by donations from libraries in homes. This circulating library provided books for seven other communities in the county which, in turn, contributed books.

For about a decade the library received small grants of money from the general fund of the city of Gatesville. Then, during World War II, the USO and the Army helped support the library. Through later years, the city allocated more and more money in its budget from the general fund. Today the library is a department of the City of Gatesville, and receives funding through the budget process as such.

Through the years, 11 Coryell County ladies--Mrs. Genella Post, Mrs. Marguerite McBeth Gates, Mrs. Kipper Saunders, Mrs. Mattie McMordie, Mrs. Mollie Sadler, Mrs. Mabel Bailey, Mrs. Barbara Rosser (twice), Mrs. Jewel Whigham, Ms. Eleanor McCuistion, Ms. Faye Nichols, and Mrs. Shea Harp--have served as librarians.

In the spring of 1961, a small group of Gatesville citizens met to organize as the Friends of the Library. This group, which is still active, urged a drive for remodeling and air conditioning the old library quarters, a step which was taken in 1964. The first library board, appointed by Mayor O.W. Lowrey and the city council in 1963 and chaired by the late Oran D. Bates, began to study plans for a new library. In November 1967, the board prepared a plan for a library building and submitted it to the Texas State Library. The result was that the building was financed with matching local and Library Service and Construction Act funds administered by the Texas State Library. Thus the modern library--whose native limestone walls from the old Chamlee building remain intact--was completed and services were started in the spring of 1970.

In 1995, the library began adding computer technology to the list of services provided to the community, and started with 3 stations for public use. These first computers were donated to the library by the Friends of the Gatesville Public Library and the Coryell County Genealogical Society. The Internet was added as a service in June of 1996.

The City of Gatesville gave approval and financial support to begin the project of converting the library's records to machine readable format in May of 1996. This project was carried out by library staff and women inmates from the Gatesville Unit Trusty Camp of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. On October 1, 1997, the library officially went "online" with the completion of the automation project that now makes it possible to track and check out materials by computer.

In February of 1998, the donation of two computers by Stone & Webster gave the library two computers for the children's department so that our young people would have the opportunity for more Internet access. A TIF (Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund) Grant of $10,000 to purchase two more computers and help with communication costs made it possible for the library to have a total of six Internet connections by March of 1998.

Construction of the new modern library that is in use today began in May of 2002 and the new facility opened it's doors for operation on January 21, 2003.