125th Anniversary

Outbuilding of Hawxhurst Property in 1903 (courtesy The Washington Times)

- 1899 & 1900s -

1899 -- The Falls Church Library is founded as a private subscription library with financial support from the Village Improvement Society. Many libraries in the United States were established by men’s clubs, but this society was not restricted by gender.

1900 – The library is housed in a small outbuilding on the property of Falls Church mayor George W. Hawxhurst. Hawxhurst acts as librarian with the assistance of his daughter, Nellie. The library is managed by a Library Association with a Board of Control.

1906 – Hawxhurst becomes the town postmaster and the library moves to the back of the Falls Church Post Office. This is the first of what will be many moves for the library.

1915 map showing proposed racially restricted zoning 

- 1910s -

1913 - A local women's organization, the Civic League, takes over library operations, working from an alcove in the former Congregational Church building at 222 North Washington Street.

1915 - Black leaders form the Colored Citizens Protective League and sue to prevent a racially restrictive zoning ordinance from being enacted. Existing segregation in the community makes it unlikely that Black community members access the library during these years.

1916 - The Civic League becomes the Falls Church Woman's Club. This group of unpaid, White women volunteers will sustain the library for decades.  During these early years, the library moves to several different locations around Falls Church. One of the buildings is unheated except for a fireplace: "The frugal ladies, preferring to spend their funds for books rather than for firewood, decide that each member should bring one or two sticks of wood." - History of the Falls Church Library 1899-1950, Lucina M. Bethune

1919 - The library moves back to the former Congregational Church building. Mary Riley Styles becomes Chairperson of the Library Committee of the Woman’s Club.

Excerpts from the 1928 town minutes 

- 1920s -

1920s – Mary Riley Styles continues at the helm of the Library Committee of the Woman’s Club. She will serve as Chairperson of the Library Committee until 1945. Her daughter will later recall that the understanding in their household was that when her mother wanted to “do” the library, everything else, including dinner, would have to wait: “The library came first and the family came second."

1920s – The building at 222 North Washington Street now provides overflow space for the White school of Falls Church. When the auditorium is converted into a gymnasium, the library moves from its alcove to a room with a separate entrance at the rear of the building.

1928 –The Town Council of Falls Church passes an ordinance establishing the "Falls Church Public Library" and appropriates $300 for the library. The resolution notes that the Woman's Club retains ownership and operation of the library, which continues to be subscription-based.

222 N. Washington Street in 1937

- 1930s -

1930s – The library remains at 222 North Washington Street through this decade and the next. Patron subscription rates are $1.00 for one year, 60¢ for six months, or 35¢ for three months. The fine for an overdue book is 2¢ per day. The library is open on Monday and Thursday afternoons and on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

1931 – The library hires its first paid employee, Annie M. Lester, to work at the service desk during the library's open hours. The Woman's Club Library Committee continues its work of policy-making as well as ordering, accessioning, and cataloguing books.

1939 – The Library Committee, while still operating the library, now makes a gift of the library and its holdings to the Town of Falls Church. The library becomes a free public library.