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Putnam County Library Buildings from 1923 - Present
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"Miss Laura's Rose Cottage" Book Lovers Club
Library
Madison Street (no longer standing) 1923 - 1939 |
Clara Cox Epperson Library
66 N. Dixie (no longer standing) 1943 -1951 |
Clara Cox Epperson Library
442 E. Spring Street 1951 - 1973
(former city hospital, then county school offices) |
Putnam County Main Library
50 E. Broad Street 1973 - Present
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History of Putnam County Library
Without access to books, education was inevitably limited. Fortunately, the 1920's brought about the beginnings of libraries in Putnam County.
The Cookeville Book Lovers Club began a library which eventually evolved into the Putnam County Library. In November of 1923 Clara Cox Epperson suggested that the twelve regular members of the Book Lovers Club contribute $1.15 each to purchase books. The club voted to use these as the nucleus for a circulating library. Members checked out books from the home of Laura Copeland, (known as "Rose Cottage"), to borrowers at a cost to adults of one dollar a year.
The Book Lovers Club raised money to buy more books by sponsoring talent shows, lectures, and movies; hosting tea and bridge parties; selling books; and soliciting donations. By 1929 the library had more than a thousand volumes.
Once the collection numbered over three thousand volumes, James Cox provided room for the library in the Herald building on the square. The Book Lovers Club renamed the library for Clara Cox Epperson, who had died in 1937. In 1939 the Book Lovers Club consolidated their library with that of the Putnam County Board of Education to form the county's first publicly financed library.
- Excerpt from the book Putnam County, Tennessee, 1850-1970
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