100 Years in the Making | 1921–2021

The Library opened on May 20, 1921 with 500 volumes in a vacant storage room on East Coffee Street in downtown Greenville and soon expanded into the space next door. The Library was so well received by the community that the City voted to provide tax support in 1923. The following year the library was moved to larger quarters in the Jervey Jordan building, which had entrances on both Main Street and Brown Street in downtown Greenville. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

The Phillis Wheatley Center was founded in 1919 by local African-American educator Hattie Logan Duckett. During the 1920s, the center housed the first library serving African Americans in South Carolina. By the 1950s the library had outgrown this space, and a new branch serving African Americans opened in a repurposed commercial building on McBee Avenue. (Image courtesy of the Greenville County Historical Society)

On October 10, 1923, a new Library service was unveiled to the public. Known as the Pathfinder, this truck loaded up with library materials was the first ever bookmobile in the South and was created to meet the needs of Greenville’s mill communities. By January of 1924, the Pathfinder was on the road providing service to the Parker District, and by 1927, expanded its travels to the Travelers Rest area and other rural parts of Greenville County. At the height of the community’s need for this service, there were four bookmobiles making nearly 100 stops. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

The Greer Library, founded in the fall of 1925, was the first Library branch in the County. Then in 1938, Greer became the first community to erect its own building, the Davenport Memorial Library on School Street. This new building featured a gathering place that was used by local clubs, including the USO during World War II. This meeting space later became the children's room as the branch’s collection grew. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

In 1926, the Greenville County Library established a branch in Fountain Inn which was open only on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. For 40 years, the branch resided in storefronts, but in 1965 the town of Fountain Inn bought land, and the Beaunit Corporation donated a building for the branch. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

At one time the smallest library in the United States, the Tigerville Branch was built in the late 1920s and served northern Greenville County residents until July of 1976. It was located on the grounds of a grammar school located just off of Tigerville Road. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

The Simpsonville Branch opened in 1926. Its beginnings were quite humble, merely one shelf of books located inside a furniture store at 104 South Main Street. The Bookmobile visited regularly and delivered fresh library materials to this rotating collection. In 1940, the Simpsonville Branch moved into a building built by the Works Progress Administration, which it shared with community groups who held meetings there. By 1968, the library had expanded to occupy the whole building, giving it 1800 square feet of space. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

Before there was an Augusta Road Branch, there was "So Big," a diminutive building constructed in 1932. There, a librarian dispensed books from its 42 feet of shelving through a window to eager patrons outside. After the era of "So Big,” the Bookmobile continued to serve the Augusta Road area until 1975, when the growth of population in the area persuaded the Library Board to rent space next to the Pickwick Pharmacy on Augusta Road. Opened on March 4, 1975, the branch was instantly popular with patrons. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

During the Depression years, few items were added to the collection, and staff often went without pay. In 1937, the end of the Library's lease in the Jervey Jordan building in downtown Greenville meant a move to temporary quarters in a garage building. The Library remained there for two years before the old Park School building on North Main Street was purchased. This new building was renovated and opened in 1940. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

In the early years of the Library, books were brought to the Mauldin Branch on a rotating basis which included biweekly visits from the Bookmobile. Beginning in 1961, the branch’s collection expanded to fill two of the unused rooms in the town hall. After visiting this collection, textile entrepreneur Arthur Magill gifted a building for Library use which opened on East Butler Road in 1962. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

On November 21, 1961, the Travelers Rest Branch first opened in three upstairs rooms provided by the Savings and Loan on Main Street. The Library supplied the books and a librarian, who was there three days per week. A decade after opening, the Travelers Rest Branch moved to roomier quarters in a storefront down the street. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

In September 1960, the Main Street Library integrated in response to the efforts of Greenville’s African-American community. Visit the Service for All exhibit to find out more. During the 1960s, the Greenville City and County public library services were combined, tax millage was raised to provide adequate support, and funds were solicited to build a new library. The new building opened on May 25, 1970 on the site of the Greenville Woman’s College on College Street in downtown Greenville. To the delight of library visitors, the City's first specially built library facility featured the recently donated Hollingsworth-Magill Memorial Globe. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

In the 1970s, the community’s growth created a need for more library branches. The Berea Branch was established on November 1, 1971 and was soon followed the Taylors Branch on November 20, 1973. On July 5, 1975, the West Branch opened in a storefront at the corner of Easley Bridge Road and West Washington Avenue. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

When the Vaughn's at East North Street Shopping Center opened in the fall of 1978, the Library leased 5,000 square feet of space for a new branch. It immediately became the branch with the highest book circulation. The steady rise in use of this Eastside Branch demanded a new building, which opened on October 7, 1990 on Pelham Road. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

To meet the growing needs of the community, in 1993, the Greenville County Council approved an ordinance to replace nine existing library branches, replace the main library in downtown Greenville, and construct a new library for Woodruff Road. In September of 1995, the Greer Branch became the first of many free standing library buildings to be built or replaced. Other branches soon followed: Travelers Rest (1996), Simpsonville (1997), Berea (1998), Mauldin (1999), Fountain Inn (2002), Anderson Road (West Branch) (2003), Augusta Road (2004), and Taylors (2005). (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

As Greenville County stood at the gates of the new millennium, a new Main Library was built to provide more space to accommodate the community’s expanded use of technology. The result was the Hughes Main Library, which opened on October 7, 2002. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)

Construction of a new Library branch to serve the fast growing Woodruff Road area began in 2016. The Five Forks Branch opened on March 25, 2018. More than twice the size of the Library System’s other branches, it includes a drive-up window, a Play Porch for kids, and a variety of meeting spaces. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)