Original Library Site - Garland, TX
N 32° 54.798 W 096° 38.230
14S E 720967 N 3644151
A sign placed by The Friends of the Nicholson Library System
and The Garland Landmark Society notes that this site, just off the Garland town square, was the site of the city's first public library. Removed in 2022.
Waymark Code: WMKAPR
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/10/2014
Views: 6
Original Library Site
On this site stood Nicholson Memorial Hall, a civic building that housed Garland's first public library beginning in 1933.
The structure's lower floor dated from about 1895, when it was occupied by Garland's first bank, the Citizen's National. A second story was added later and the building continued as a bank until 192. W.R. Nicholson of Longview purchased the building and gave it to the city in March, 1933 as a memorial to his mother, Mrs. Missouri A. Nicholson, and his brother, former Garland Mayor S.E. Nicholson, who were killed by a disastrous cyclone that struck the city on May 9, 1927.
The building housed city offices, a public auditorium, and, on a portion of the first floor, the new public library. Citizens of the city, then numbering fewer than 2,000 people, collected 2,344 books to stock the new library, which loaned its first book in December, 1933.
As the library and the city staff rapidly expanded, the building was no longer able to contain them. City offices moved into a new building on the east end of this property in January, 1956, retaining some space on the ground floor of the Nicholson building for city personnel. In 1966, the library was housed in temporary quarters until it relocated in 1970 to a new building on Austin Street dedicated exclusively to library use. A much larger City Hall was opened in 1964.
The aging Nicholson Memorial Hall, deemed uneconomical to renovate, was razed in 1973.
Sponsored by
The Friends of the Nicholson Library System
and
The Garland Landmark Society
2008
Group that erected the marker: The Friends of the Nicholson Library System and The Garland Landmark Society
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
500 Block of W. State St.
Garland, TX USA
75040
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