Brooks County Public Library

The Brooks County Public Library has been serving the citizens of Brooks County since January 31, 1880.  It is one of the oldest public library systems in Georgia.  Our library is a proud member of the state-wide PINES system.

The charter members of the Brooks County Library Associaton supported the library through membership dues of ten cents a month for ladies and children and twenty-five cents for men.  A building fund was started, and in January 1881, the library moved into the second floor of what is now the law offices of Long and Denton.  The ground floor of the building was occupied by the Quitman Free Press.

In 1912 the Carnegie Library Fund awarded the Brooks County Library Association a grant of $10,000 for the construction of a new library, but the grant was cancelled in 1919 after the Association failed to receive any bids under the grant amount.  Throughout the 1920’s, fund raising for a new library building continued.  Finally, in 1933, with the help of a $5,000 WPA grant, the Association began construction.  The building was designed by Lloyd Greer to house both the library and an assembly room for the women’s clubs in the community.  In 1939, the building received national recognition when the American Library Association included it in”Small Library Buildings”, a building guide for the ideal small library.  By 1974, the library had outgrown its former share of the building and moved part of its collection into the old assembly room.

The Brooks County Library moved to its present location on Barwick Road in November 1993.