NEIGHBORS

A N NI V E R Y R SA Brevard Library System celebrates 50 years since its grassroots start

BY MARIA SONNENBERG

With names like the Progressive Culture Club, pockets of literacy-minded individuals throughout Brevard County launched the seeds of knowledge known as the public libraries.

Although some individual libraries, such as the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library, can trace its roots to the late 1800s, it was not until 1972 that the county finally unified all these depositories of learning.

The Brevard Library System will be in party mode come Dec. 1 as it celebrates its half century of service with a party from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library. Speakers, historical displays and refreshments will be part of the festivities, as will a chance for attendees to record their library memories on video. A new section on the system’s website will detail the history of individual libraries.

Then there is the nifty new card.

“One of the big things at the event will be the unveiling of the specially designed anniversary gold library card, which people will be able to get for the first, and limited, time,” said Michael Boonstra, a genealogy librarian/archivist at the Central Library.

The gold card features a rocket, the steel bird that made Brevard County, replicating the image used in library stationery during the 1970s.

The county’s first five public libraries — Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Eau Gallie, Melbourne, and North Brevard in Titusville — began life thanks to eclectic groups such as AVILAH, or A Village Improvement Library Art History, an organization formed to promote culture in the county. With $5, AVILAH in 1895 found library space in a building in Cocoa. Now all they needed was books.

“Citizens donated books, chairs and tables and until 1942 they paid $1 a year to use this little library,” said Boonstra, who adds that community volunteers took turns as librarians.

Five years later, library supporters went so far as to move an existing building to a new lot for the growing library. It proved not to be a good move, since the floor gave out during the move and the book collection ended strewn around the road. The mishap did not deter the friends of the library, who collected a $500 deposit from innumerable bazaars to build a $2,500 building, the second concrete building in Cocoa.

The story repeats itself with variations through the different municipalities. By 1959, Florida Statute 150 gave county funds to the five original libraries, as long as they were to serve all county residents. As the population skyrocketed during the space program in the 1960s, four more libraries followed.

Demand grew, and so did the need for more funds. On Nov. 7, 1972, citizens voted for a tax referendum that established the countywide Library Tax District that funds Brevard Public Libraries.

“What was once a series of smaller, scattered individually-run libraries became a united system dedicated to meeting the needs of the tens of thousands of hardworking and inquisitive people who moved here during the space boom of the 1960s,” said Wendi Jo Bost, the county’s director of library services.

The original five little libraries with the donated books have evolved into 17 libraries that serve from Scottsmoor to Micco with 1.2 million books and other media, plus energetic programming that crosses the generations. SL

SENIOR LIFE Courtesy of the Brevard County Historical Commission

Cocoa’s original library, top, was two stories. Melbourne’s original library was one of five in the county.

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time machine

In November...

Nov. 2, 1947

The first and only flight of Howard Hughes’ “Spruce Goose” flying boat occurs in Long Beach Harbor, California. It flies about one mile at an altitude of 70 feet. Costing $25 million, the 200-ton plywood eight-engine Hercules is the world’s largest airplane, designed, built and flown by Hughes.

Nov. 9, 1965

At 5:16 p.m., the Great Blackout of the Northeast begins as a tripped circuit breaker at a power plant on the Niagara River. It causes a chain reaction knocking out interconnected power companies down the East Coast, affecting more than 30 million people. Electricity also fails in Ontario and Quebec.

Nov. 18, 1928

Walt Disney Studios premiers Steamship Willie. This black and white animated short film is especially notable, being one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, as well as one of the first cartoons to feature a fully post-produced soundtrack, which distinguishes it from earlier sound cartoons.

Nov. 26, 1789

The first American holiday occurs, proclaimed by President George Washington to be Thanksgiving Day, a day of prayer and public thanksgiving in gratitude for the successful establishment of the new American republic. His opponents declare that he had overstepped his constitutional bounds.

Nov. 13, 192

The Holland Tunnel is open to traffic. The tunnel runs under the Hudson River between New York City and Jersey City and is the first underwater tunnel built in the U.S. It is comprised of two tubes, each large enough for two lanes of traffic.

Nov. 29, 1972

Atari launches the video game Pong. One of the earliest arcade games, Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics.