Praise God for Our New Library Facility

We praise God that the long awaited new library on St. Helena Island opened Wednesday, October 17.  Around this time last year we gathered for the groundbreaking for the new library and now it is completed.  You may recall these words from an article that appeared in the Beacon:

As the site of one of the country's first schools for freed slaves, Penn Center is a National Historic District Landmark. The Penn Center Campus is a natural location for this new library branch. In 1906, the Laura M. Towne Library, as part of the Penn School, was providing public library services to black residents on St. Helena Island; built by the school's carpentry classes, the 10-by-10-foot, small-frame building began a tradition that we are proudly continuing today.
 

Now the library is completed, ahead of schedule, and ready to be enjoyed by the community.  Take a look at the history of libraries on St. Helena Island.  These are bits of the History of the Beaufort County Library and its branches that are related to St. Helena Island. 

• The County Library continued the Bookmobile service established by the Laura Towne Library in 1958.
• 1958 Prior to the Bookmobile, Mrs. Wilhelmina Barnwell and Mrs. York Bailey  carried books in their own cars to the children on St. Helena and Lady's Islands, until they had more "Book Outposts" than their personal vehicles could handle.
• The Laura Towne Library at Penn Center, which had operated as a separate library on St. Helena Island since the early 1950s, became the first branch location of the County System.
• 1973 The Laura Towne Branch Library closed.
• 1993 The Saint Helena Island Branch location was established, sharing space with the Saint Helena Elementary School media center on Sea Island Parkway (Highway 21).
• 2006  Beaufort County Library and the Penn Center began discussions about construction of a new full-service branch library facility on property adjacent to the historic Penn campus on St. Helena Island.

This piece below comes from the Library Services to Blacks in South Carolina website.
 
Penn School On St. Helena's Island

Following the Civil War, a variety of religious groups from the North established schools to educate Blacks in South Carolina. Libraries were an integral part of each of these schools and continue today as the bedrock of the state's educational and library systems.

Assistant and Pupils	Books were scarce in the period following the Civil War, especially on St. Helena's Island. As a result, story hour became an important part of the curriculum at Penn School.
Northern philanthropists sent Christmas gifts of books to the Island children every year.	Dathan School Christmas, 1913
Library	Later, the Penn school's "Little Library" served the entire St. Helena's Island community for 25 years.

 As a homeschooling family, we  are thrilled about the new library.  We were active patrons and volunteers at the previous location and will continue to assist in the new facility.  As a person who enjoys reading and researching I am excited about this library.  As a member of the Friends of the Library board I'm actively involved in fundraising to support programs and purchase materials for all of our branches.  As library volunteers, our family is working to help our library with programs, shelving, and other areas where help is needed.  Our students are members of the Teen Board and also serve as volunteers. 

Home school families in the area, this library is a tremendous blessing to us; please use and support it!  Sign up to volunteer and get involved in the programs.  Join the Friends of the Library your membership fee will help purchase materials.  There have been many negative comments made about building this expensive facility with all of its technology out here and I for one look forward to proving all the nay sayers wrong.  We will not only use this facility but will also support and take the very best care of it!

Library hours are as follows: Mondays & Wednesdays 1pm-8pm, Tuesdays & Thursdays 10am-5pm, Fridays 1pm-5pm, Saturdays 9am-5pm and closed on Sundays.  Use the links to follow the library on Twitter and become friends with them on Face Book.  Come out, tour the public spaces of the library, meet the staff and volunteers and enjoy using the library.  We look forward to seeing you at our brand new facility!