DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Greenville, Texas, 1903. A group of women called the Woman's Review Club decided their town needed a public library.
Just decided it, plain as that, and set about making it happen. They organized the Greenville Public Library and kept it going through various locations, moving it around until they could do something more permanent. And when the time came to build something real, they went after it.
The city Federation of Women's Clubs stepped up, providing books and maintaining the library, holding the whole thing together. Then came the money. The National Library Program of Andrew Carnegie, the steel millionaire himself, funded a building at 2713 Stonewall.
So Greenville got its building. Now here's where the story takes a little turn, because that particular lot on Stonewall had a history of its own. The first Catholic church in the city had stood right there on that ground.
In 1953, the city acquired the church property. The very next year, the structure that stands there today was completed. A library rising where a church once stood.
The Women's Clubs had carried that library for decades, through borrowed rooms and temporary addresses, and now it had a permanent home. Then in 1976, the library was renamed for a civic leader by the name of W. Walworth Harrison.
From a book club's determination in 1903 all the way to a man's name on the door in 1976, this library earned every chapter of its story.
What the marker says
In 1903 the Woman's Review Club organized the Greenville Public Library. Various locations were used until a building at 2713 Stonewall was funded by the National Library Program of the steel millionaire, Andrew Carnegie. The city Federation of Women's Clubs provided books and maintained the library. The first Catholic church in the city was located on this lot. In 1953 the city acquired the church property. The next year this structure was completed. The library was renamed in 1976 for civic leader, W. Walworth Harrison.