| Alexandria Library | |
|---|---|
  Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library Kate Waller Barrett Branch Library Ellen Coolidge Burke Branch Library James M. Duncan Branch Library | |
 | |
| Country | US |
| Established | 1794 |
| Branches | 6 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 503,191 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Rose T. Dawson |
| Website | alexlibraryva |
Alexandria Library is the public library in Alexandria, Virginia in the United States. [1]
In 1794, Alexandria Library opened as a private lending library, calling itself the Alexandria Library Company.
In 1937, Dr. Robert South Barrett donated funds to build a public library in memory of his mother, physician Dr. Kate Waller Barrett (1857-1925). The Society of Friends granted a 99-year lease for use of its former Quaker Burial Ground (then used as a playground). [2] An informal agreement provided that the interments would not be disturbed, although the few gravestones were transferred to the Woodlawn Quaker Meetinghouse and a granite marker acknowledges the former use. Thus, the new library building was built without a basement, but rather on a concrete slab foundation (as were subsequent additions). [3] The Library Company cooperated in this effort, contracting with the Alexandria City Council to turn over its collections to City of Alexandria as the City agreed to include the public library's operating expenses in its budget.
Due to practices common in Virginia and other Southern states at the time, the public library originally only permitted white residents to use the facility. On August 21, 1939, several young African American men, in a strategy devised by attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker (who grew up about two blocks from the new library), staged a peaceable sit-in at the library to enable African Americans to use that public facility in the first known non-violent sit-in of the Civil rights movement in America. [4] [5] Although they were arrested, charges were ultimately dropped by city attorney Armistead Boothe, and a branch library was built in 1940 for African Americans and named after Robert H. Robinson, which closed circa 1960 and now houses the Alexandria Black History Museum. [6] [7]
Today the library consists of a new central building (built in 2000 and named for mayor Charles E. Beatley) and four branch libraries, and includes two special divisions: Local History /Special Collections (in what became the Kate Waller Barret Branch Library) and a Talking Books division for the blind and visually handicapped. The other library buildings are: the Ellen Coolidge Burke Branch Library, the James M. Duncan Branch Library and the law library branch located in the historic Alexandria City Hall near the Barrett branch. [8]
Patrons check out more than 1.5 million titles annually, including books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, eAudioBooks, and other items. The system owned 503,191 items and had 700,921 library visitors (more than 1.3 million including its web site) in FY2017. [9] The library's current director is Rose T. Dawson. Among its more than 150 employees are more than 40 staff with master's degrees in library science. [8]
The library offers a wide variety of programs and services, both in the branches and via the Web site. Each branch has computers for access to the Internet, the catalog, downloadable material and databases. Library sponsored programs include: summer reading, One Book/One City, literary discussion groups, author book signings, children story times and other events for the city's diverse population. The Alexandria Library also started offering passport services [10] at the Barrett Branch [11] and Beatley Central Library in October 2016.
Non-Residents of the city who work, own property or attend school in the city may obtain a library card without charge. Non-Residents that live in an area that will offer reciprocal library card privileges to Alexandria residents may also obtain a free library card. Thus residents of the District of Columbia, the Maryland Counties of Montgomery, and Prince George's, the Virginia cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, and Prince William are all eligible.
Hybla Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of Alexandria. The population was 15,801 at the 2010 census, down from 16,721 in 2000 due to a reduction in area, resulting from some of the eastward neighborhoods including much of Hollin Hills being moved to the Fort Hunt CDP. The population increased to 16,319 in the 2020 census.
Lorton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 20,072 as of the 2020 census.
Mount Vernon is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 12,416 at the 2010 census. Primarily due to its historical significance and natural recreation and beauty, the Mount Vernon area receives over one million tourists each year.
Newington is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 12,943 at the 2010 census. The 2010 census showed a significant decrease after half the population was split off to the newly created Newington Forest CDP.
Rose Hill is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 20,226 at the 2010 census. Built in the mid-1950s, Rose Hill is the largest of the subdivisions that make up the CDP, which is just southwest of Alexandria; others include Wilton Woods, Burgundy Village, and Winslow Heights. Street addresses are in Alexandria ZIP codes 22310, 22303 and 22315.
The Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) is a public library system comprising 8 regional libraries, 14 community libraries and the Access Services Library Branch, which removes barriers to library services for people with disabilities. FCPL is headquartered in Suite 324 of The Fairfax County Government Center in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.
The Northern Virginia trolleys were the network of electric passenger rails that moved people around the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC from 1892 to 1941. They consisted of as many as three separate companies connecting Rosslyn, Great Falls, Bluemont, Mount Vernon, Fairfax City, Camp Humphries and Nauck to Washington, DC on six different lines.
Woodlawn is a historic house located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Originally a part of Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic plantation estate, it was subdivided in the 19th century by abolitionists to demonstrate the viability of a free labor system. The address is now 9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia, but due to expansion of Fort Belvoir and reconstruction of historic Route 1, access is via Woodlawn Road slightly south of Jeff Todd Way/State Route 235. The house is a designated National Historic Landmark, primarily for its association with the Washington family, but also for the role it played in the historic preservation movement. It is now a museum property owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of downtown Washington, D.C. Alexandria is the third-largest "principal city" of the Washington metropolitan area which is part of the larger Washington-Baltimore combined statistical area.
Hollindale is an unincorporated community in Fort Hunt, Fairfax County, Virginia, United States close to the George Washington Memorial Parkway in ZIP code 22306. As of 2013, it had 945 residents. Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church and Hollin Meadows Elementary School are located within the community. Hollindale is set along the hilly woodlands across from the Potomac. It was built around several estates and on what used to be Sherwood Dairy Farm, and is adjacent to the Hollin Hills community. It is dominated by mid-century modern homes, colonials, and Tudors.
Samuel Wilbert Tucker was an American lawyer and a cooperating attorney with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His civil rights career began as he organized a 1939 sit-in at the then-segregated Alexandria, Virginia public library. A partner in the Richmond, Virginia, firm of Hill, Tucker and Marsh, Tucker argued and won several civil rights cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including Green v. County School Board of New Kent County which, according to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights In America, "did more to advance school integration than any other Supreme Court decision since Brown."
Charles E. Beatley, Jr. was an American politician who was the mayor of Alexandria, Virginia. A native of Ohio, Beatley earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University in 1938, and received his master's degree in 1947. As a civilian pilot, he flew for Pan American-Grace Airways between college degrees. He also ferried military planes to overseas bases as a civilian pilot during World War II.
The Prince George's County Memorial Library System (PGCMLS) is the public library system of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, in the Washington metropolitan area. Its headquarters are in the Largo-Kettering Branch in Largo.
Alexandria, Virginia, an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, is located along the western bank of the Potomac River. The city of approximately 151,000 is about six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
John Hawxhurst was a nineteenth-century American Quaker from New York who moved to Fairfax County, Virginia, where he and his younger brother Job Hawxhurst farmed and operated a grist mill beginning in 1846. As Union men, they fled Virginia temporarily as the American Civil War began in April 1861. John Hawxhurst helped Union forces as a guide, lived in Alexandria, Virginia and was active in the Restored Government of Virginia.
Ebenezer Erskine Mason was a farmer who also served as a local magistrate and one of Fairfax County, Virginia's two delegates to the Wheeling Convention in 1861 which created the Restored Government of Virginia and led to the creation of the state of West Virginia.
The Alexandria Black History Museum, located at 902 Wythe St., Alexandria, Virginia, is operated by the City of Alexandria. The building was formerly the Robert Robinson Library, originally constructed in 1940 as the first "separate but equal" library for African Americans in the segregated city.
Robert H. Robinson Library was one of the earliest libraries for Colored People in the United States, during the Jim Crow laws era. Robert Robinson Library was located at 902 Wythe St., Alexandria, Virginia, and was operated since 1940 by the City of Alexandria.
The Alexandria Library sit-in was one of the first staged sit-in actions in the United States, pioneering the use of nonviolent direct action to demand equal rights for African Americans. On August 21, 1939, five Black men sat down inside the Alexandria Public Library and quietly read books, a transgression of the library's "whites only" policy. Their actions were coordinated by Alexandria attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker, who planned the action to create a test case challenging the library's racial segregation policy. The men were escorted out of the library by police and charged with disorderly conduct. A ruling was not filed in their court case; in October 2019, all charges against the men were dismissed. The Alexandria sit-in is one of the earliest precursors in the U.S. of the strategies used during the civil rights movement.
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