Our Library History
The year was 1939. The city of Loogootee, Indiana and its 2300 citizens, like the rest of the country, were grappling with the effects of the almost decade-long economic depression. Because of this, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which was intended to (and did) create over 8 million Public Service jobs between 1935 and 1943.
One such WPA program created Recreation Director positions for small cities and towns including those in the Martin and Daviess County areas. Organized recreational sports and the promotion of friendly competition among the towns was one benefit of the program. Baseball teams in Shoals, Loogootee, Washington and Elnora provided countless hours of recreation for the participants and even more hours of entertainment for the general public.
Another WPA program figured directly in the creation of a Public Library for Loogootee. This program funded state-level library service demonstration projects which were intended to create new areas of library services to underserved populations.
The exact motivation for the establishment of a public library, if there was one, has been lost to time but the following, taken from a 1960 College project essay by Marlene Seitz of Loogootee, offers us a glimpse into the library’s formation.
“The Library was first organized in 1939 as a WPA project, a part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program. In that year, George Tewell was the Recreation Director for the city of Loogootee. He decided the community could well use a Library.”
Mr. Tewell, with the help of Miss Virginia Davis, a public school teacher and the library’s first secretary, got the project underway as an extension of his office. On April 18 of 1939, a request was put forth to the Loogootee City Council from Mr. Tewell’s group to rent space on the second floor above the Walker Drug Store on the Public Square. The request was approved and the library took over the room reached via the entrance on the northwest corner of the building, sharing the second floor with City offices. Mr. Tewell assumed the role as the first librarian and the next step was to build an inventory of books through donations. The Public was informed of the project and as we learned from the Marlene Seitz essay: “Various community groups, clubs and organizations made contributions for its (the library) maintenance and improvement.”
The library opened on September 2, 1939 and at the first board meeting after the opening, the meeting minutes took note of $36.19 in expenses including $3.64 paid to W. A. Walker and Co., presumably for rent. 968 books were ready to loan and an additional 180 books were received in donations within a short period of time. However, it quickly became apparent that a library established under the control of the city’s Recreation Director would be only a temporary measure. On October 28 of 1939, Mr. Tewell received a letter from the Chief of the State Library extension advising him that in order to receive books on loan from the Indiana State Library, Loogootee’s library would need to be classified as a public library.
To that end, on June 6, 1940, a Public Library Board of Directors was named with appointments made by the Circuit Court Judge’s office, the School Board and the City Council. The original Board members were as follows:
- James M. Haigerty, President
- George Tewell, Vice-President
- Mary Hoffman, Secretary
- Harriet ‘Hattie’ Ackerman
- Virginia Davis
- Henry Jones
- Grace Ketcham
- Agnes Larkin
Helen Arnold was appointed as the first librarian and by 1942, the library was circulating over 7200 items per year. We were unable to find many pictures and only a few memories of that location on the Square but this is certain; The citizens of Loogootee were to climb those dark stairs thousands of times over the next 17 years in order to visit a room filled with drama, comedy, wonder and adventure—but no public restroom—until a civic-minded lady saw fit to take the library to its next destination.