Petersburg Public Library
The Petersburg Public Library was established in 1924, when Clara McKenney gave her house at 137 S. Sycamore Street to the City for the purpose. The Benevolent Mechanics Association donated their lending library to the City to provide a starting collection of books and Theresa Hodges was hired as the first library director.
In 1958, the library received an addition, which housed the Anna M. Dunlop gallery. The A.P. Hill Library opened on the second floor of the A.P. Hill Community Center in 1976 and the Rodof Sholom Library at 1865 S. Sycamore Street opened in 1988. By the 1990’s, however, space was becoming an issue. The aging buildings were also not designed with 21st century technology in mind.
The Petersburg Library Foundation was founded to fund raise and plan a new state-of-the-art facility. The new building 201 W. Washington Street opened in April of 2014. In the decade of 2010-2019, the library issued 26,964 library cards, added 53,793 items, checked out 1,004,131 items, and had approximately 600,000 guests.
