Robert J. Kleberg Public Library

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Robert J. Kleberg Public Library. Now, every good library has an origin story, and this one starts not with a government committee or a city council, but with a group of determined women.

The Woman's Club of Kingsville got the whole thing going back in 1909. Just a public library, started by a club. Simple enough on the surface.

But watch what happens next. Nearly two decades later, in 1927, that library found itself a proper home, right here in this building. And what a building it turned out to be.

B. E. Giesecke and A.

W. Harris, both out of Austin, designed it in the Spanish colonial revival style. The kind of architecture that says this town means business, and it means it with some elegance.

The building went up under the leadership of club president Mrs. John D. Finnegan, which tells you everything you need to know about who was driving this whole enterprise.

Now the land itself, that's worth a word. It came from the Henrietta M. King Estate, donated by Robert J.

Kleberg, the prominent area cattleman. The library carries his name, and that seems about right. For thirty years, the public library called this place home.

Thirty years of Kingsville residents walking through those Spanish colonial doors to borrow a book. Started by a women's club, built by an Austin design team, standing on land from a cattle dynasty. That's not just a library.

That's a community writing itself into permanence.

What the marker says

Begun by the Woman's Club in 1909, Kingsville's Public Library was moved to this building in 1927. B. E. Giesecke and A. W. Harris of Austin designed the Spanish colonial revival structure, which was built under the leadership of club president Mrs. John D. Finnegan. It is located on land donated from the Henrietta M. King Estate by Robert J. Kleberg, the prominent area cattleman for whom it was named. The public library was located here for 30 years.