Lucia Tryon
Lucia Madeline Tryon was an American librarian, who led the formation of the first public library in the city of Pensacola.
Career
School librarian
After earning a library science degree from Emory University, she became the head librarian at Miami Edison High School.Pensacola public library service
Formation
Tryon was later hired by the city of Pensacola to convert the Old Christ Church in historic Seville Square into the city’s first public library. On February 15th, 1938, the library opened its doors. And with a budget of only one hundred dollars, they began with 3,352 books.Development
During her time at the helm of Pensacola’s free library system, Tryon guided it through many changes, including the construction of the main library’s current building on Gregory Street in 1957, and an expansion of that building ten years later.She oversaw the establishment of the Alice S. Williams Branch Library to serve the city’s Black community during the time of racial segregation. This branch ultimately merged with their downtown branch, the Pensacola Public Library.
Tryon was particularly proud of initiating the system’s first Bookmobile program in 1963, which made the library's resources more accessible to residents in outlying rural areas. After her thirty years of service, the library had grown twenty times its size.