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Moments in History
HISTORY OF NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER
Submitted by the Portsmouth History
Commission
Portsmouth Public Library
Although there were private subscription libraries in Portsmouth
before 1914, in that year the Portsmouth Students Club, a
private women's study club, opened a small library
behind the courthouse. It had one librarian and was contracted
by the city council to serve as the city's public
library. The first librarian was Miss Esther Wilson who received
$25.00 a month.
The original collection included books from the
Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and the Portsmouth Y. M. C. A. gave
about 400 books. On December 1, 1914, after about nine months
of preparation and cataloging, in behalf of the Portsmouth
Public Library Association, Hon. J. Davis Reed presented the
library for the use of the City of Portsmouth.
In the 1940s a Black library was added, with Mrs. Bertha
Edwards as its librarian, and in 1963 the city made these
contractual libraries into one city department. It was then
moved to the present location on Court Street.
The City of Portsmouth, having secured the former Post Office
building from the United States Government, undertook to remodel
and equip it as an adequate, attractive and modern library.
Proceeds from a book auction on its 75th anniversary in 1989
were used to start the Mary Lockhart Johnson McMurran local
history fund in Portsmouth Public Library Foundation. Mrs
McMurran served on various boards of the library for more than
30 years and had a keen interest in collecting and sharing
Portsmouth's history. Money from the McMurran fund is used to
buy local history materials and to preserve items in the
collection.
There were no formal library services for Blacks in Portsmouth
until 1945. The first public library for Blacks was the
Portsmouth Community Library on South Street. This was the
result of many years of hard work, effort, and prayers
by the Rev. M.B. Birchette, Rector of St. James Episcopal
Church; the Rev. W. H. Willis; Mrs. W. E. Reid and others.
The idea of a public library had its origin in an
address before the Mission Study Group of Monumental Methodist
Episcopal Church (Monumental United Methodist Church) in 1927 by
Rev. Birchette. A few years later about 1931 he called a group
of persons together for the purpose of forming a library
committee. For four years (1937-1941)
through the untiring efforts of Rev. Birchette and others,
Negroes had a small library in the Parish House of
St. James Episcopal Church financed by National Youth
Administration Funds.
Mrs. Kitty Leary (who subsequently became the Craddock Branch
Librarian of the Portsmouth Public Library System)
trained the workers for this library. It was forced to close in
1941 when the NYA ceased to support the project.
A successful community fund drive was conducted in 1944 for
funds to purchase a lot for a Black library. A brick
building was built by the City of Portsmouth. Ms. Bertha
Winborne Edwards, a graduate of Hampton Institute with
library training became the first Public Librarian of the
Community Library.
B. D. White
B. D. White was a retired judge. He wrote this article in the
mid to late 1940s.
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