By Maya Barboa-Ojinaga, Museum Education Specialist
The talk of opening a library in Windsor began back in 1899, when the Windsor Improvement Club started to discuss the need for a community library. The Improvement Club hosted their first public meeting in 1906 about the establishment of a library and need for a founding committee. This meeting brought in influential local figures like George E. Osterhout and Roy Ray, temporarily electing Osterhout as chairman and Ray as secretary of the committee.
On June 21, 1906, the Windsor Library Association was officially created. The week following the official creation, officers were elected to serve on the board. The officers elected included Dr. L.E. Bartz as president, Mrs. J.T. Perkins as vice president, J.J. Downey as secretary, and Miss Atta Kern as treasurer.
Over the course of the year, the Windsor Library Association worked to build up community engagement by seeking donations and membership. A “Wanted” ad was frequently posted in the Windsor Beacon requesting 500 men and women to become members of the association for one dollar. There ended up over 100 members of the association, but the goal of 500 members was never met. In addition to membership donations, the association hosted different fundraising activities throughout the summer of 1906. This included hayrides to a local farm and ice cream socials, with all the proceeds going towards Windsor’s future library.
Members of the Windsor Improvement Club and the Library Association donated books from their own libraries, purchased over 300 books, and received over 150 book donations from the local community for the future library. With so many books and no place to put them yet, the local post office made space for the library association to temporarily store and lend books while they continued to raise funds to build a library. By December 1906, the library association implemented a check out system to use for the books being stored at the post office. In 1919, Windsor’s first public library finally opened after 20 years of hard work and determination by the Windsor Improvement Club and Library Association.