Smithfield Branch Library

History:

The Smithfield Branch had its origin in 1924 when members of the Shakespeare Class and the Women's Club of Smithfield approached the Smithfield Town Council to request their assistance in establishing a community library. Council allowed one room of the Community Building to be converted and gave $2.50 a month in support. With donations of books and money from state and local citizens, the Smithfield Public Library opened its doors on January 26, 1925. In 1942 the library moved to the Main Street Courthouse, and, in 1945, Miss Cora Leigh Chapman left her home on Church Street to house the library 'as long as it was suitable'. Our name became the Benjamin P. Chapman Memorial Library. The library joined the Walter Cecil Rawls Regional Library System (now known as Blackwater Regional Library) in 1974 and remained on Church Street until our move in 1989 to its current location on James Street.