Mobile Public Library
The Mobile Public Library is a public library system primarily serving Mobile County, Alabama. The system is a department of the city of Mobile and receives funding from Mobile County and the city of Saraland.
History
The Mobile Public Library has roots going back to the 1850s, when it was started as a subscription organization by the Franklin Society. The library was officially established as the Mobile Public Library in 1902 and was originally housed in an antebellum structure at the corner of Conti and Hamilton Street. The library association appealed to city leaders in the late 1910s to provide operating funds for the library, and it offered to give the city the library property if it would build a new building to house the collections. The city declined to finance the construction of a new building, but did approve operating funds on April 2, 1918.Due to increasing public demand for a library, on December 15, 1925, the city commissioners voted to schedule a special election on a $250,000 bond issue. The voters approved the bond and, along with a gift of $30,000 from Eli H. Bernheim of New York City, the new library building was constructed. Noted Mobile architect George Bigelow Rogers designed the building in the Classical Revival style. The new structure, now known as the Ben May Main Library, was opened on September 15, 1928.
The state had passed racial segregation laws at the turn of the century after disenfranchising most blacks and many poor whites in the state, excluding them from politics. Mobile's African-American community did not have access to a public library until one was completed for them in 1931; it was known as the Davis Avenue Branch. It was also designed by George Bigelow Rogers. It was funded by a city bond issue and the city's sale of the old library property on Conti Street.
The Ben May Main Library building is a contributing building to the Church Street East Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 16, 1971. The system opened a new branch, the West Regional Branch, in 2002, with First Lady Laura Bush making an address. Beginning in 2006, the Ben May Main Library building was restored and expanded by. It was reopened on May 31, 2007.