Freestone County, Texas
Social Groups


Fairfield Library



Fairfield Recorder newspaper
June 24, 2010 issue

Funding and staffing . . . Ladies key to libraries

Members of the Fairfield History Club were the driving force behind the 
establishment of a permanent public library in Fairfield.

Club minutes mention a city library beginning with the Dec. 6, 1928 meeting, in 
which Mrs. Hall was named chairman of a committee to select books for a 
“circulating” library, planned with the Fairfield school superintendent, to be 
housed in a room at the school.

The library opened Feb. 15, 1929, a Wednesday, with Mrs. C.N. Williford and Mrs. 
McIlveen in charge the first week.

This library eventually became the school library, with the History Club making 
regular donations to help in buying books.

In minutes from Feb. 8, 1957, Fairfield school superintendent Mr. Wood requested 
the History Club’s help in planning the future high school library, and club 
members volunteered to work at the library for two hours on Thursdays.

In 1954, a small public library had opened in the red brick building on the 
northeast corner of the courthouse square. The facility was known as “the 
paupers’ building”, and included 168 books. Several county organizations, 
including the History Club, were responsible for the library, but after about a 
year, money had run out and librarian O.P. “Pat” Dickey asked the History Club 
to take over operations.

In 1956, the library was moved to a room in the History Club building, at the 
corner of Bateman and Main Streets. It opened to the public April 29, 1957. The 
library was open one day a week—-Tuesday—- from 5 to 9 p.m., and was staffed by 
History Club members.

Later that year, an operetta was planned, with proceeds going to the library fund.

For the next several years, the library experienced several closings for various 
reasons, although an article in a Trinity District publication in 1963 said, “An
example of what can be done by 30 women united in purpose was reported by the 
Fairfield History Club. In a town of about 1,700 people the women’s clubhouse 
provides the city with its only library.”

In 1965 the History Club joined the Committee of Community Betterment in 
Fairfield, and re-affirmed their commitment to a public library in the city.

The library opened again on March 2, 1965 with an open house. New hours were 
Thursday nights, 6 to 8 p.m.

A storytelling hour and summer reading program was added that same year.

In the summer of 1967 the History Club purchased the Moody Bradley House and the 
next year sold the clubhouse on Bateman and Main Streets to the newly formed 
Fairfield Library Association for $7,000.

In 1979, library board members asked the History Club to write a letter to the 
Moody Foundation asking for a grant for a new library building. The History Club 
wrote the letter, a grant was received, and in the early 1980s the new library on 
Main Street and highway 75 north was constructed and named the Mary Moody Northen 
Library.