The local public library system is vast and open to all, but it once was segregated. Willard Library, founded by Willard Carpenter in the 1880s, system was desired. Evansville’s system began taking its multi-branch form in 1908. Unlike Willard Library, which loaned books and made its physical place open to all races, city branches were limited to white citizens.
Evansville harnessed the vast wealth of industrialist Andrew Carnegie to build and open two libraries in 1913 — one on West Franklin Street and one by Bayard Park, both white populated areas. Carnegie provided $10,000 for a separate library for Black residents, whose settlement in Evansville was limited to a few geographic areas, including a portion of Cherry Street from what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard southwest to Fourth Street.
Construction on the Cherry Street library began mid-block between Fourth and Fifth streets. Opened in late 1914, the stately building designed by architect Clifford Shopbell served the Black community until the local library system — which merged with the county in 1981 to form Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library — ended its policy on segregation in 1952; the Cherry Street library was sold to the Boy Scouts in 1955.
As Welborn Memorial Baptist Hospital expanded in 1970, the former library was razed and replaced by the Welborn Clinic, itself demolished in 2024. Sadly, no historical marker commemorates the Cherry Street library’s legacy.
