Community Corner
Almost 100 Years of Good Reads: The Many Incarnations of the Norcross Public Library
Over 100 years ago the Norcross Women's Club began making plans for the first library in Norcross.
On North Peachtree St, just across from Thrasher Park, you will find an old, rather small Noeclassical brick building bearing the title “Norcross Women’s Club”. If you look carefully just above that sign, as a part of the stonework you read the word “Library."
In 1907 the NWC thought it important for an up and coming town such as Norcross to have it’s own library. By 1921 their efforts came to fruition with the construction of the first Norcross Public Library.
The first donation to the cause was $100 contributed by a Norcross native living in New York City named Edward Buchanan. Many local businesses and residents did their part by giving money as well as donating books from their private collections.
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Upon receiving a personal visit of thanks from Mr. and Mrs. Homer Jones, Buchanan wrote a check for an additional $2,500 so that Norcross could some day have its own library building.
In 1910, Buchanan fell on hard times and requested that the Women’s Club relinquish the donation he’d made in order for his foster mother to keep her home, the stone house which sits at the corner of North Peachtree Street across from Thrasher Park. The NWC consented. Buchanan wrote a deed making it possible for the Women’s Club to eventually recoup the funds plus interest, which they did in 1915.
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The lot on North Peachtree was purchased from John Simpson, the ground broken in 1920 and the building we see today completed and opened in 1921. At that time the library housed 2,500 books. The cornerstone of that building holds such items as a U.S. flag, a Bible and a confederate bill, just to name a few. During WWII the library was closed and loaned to the Red Cross for their use.
In 1971 the Norcross library moved to a larger, remodeled building at 116 Carlyle St. This once-red brick building is now the home of the Kudzu Art Zone.
In 1990, after once again outgrowing its space, the Norcross library moved into the current facility at 6025 Buford Hwy. After several affiliations, in 1996 the library became a branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library System. Still serving and meeting the needs of a growing community, last year the Norcross branch celebrated 20 years in its current location.
