Bossier City Library: From Small Branch to The Central Complex

The Bossier City Library Branch opened on September 21, 1940 in the old Bossier City Hall on Barksdale Boulevard, under librarian Miss Margaret Frances Wiseman, with library experience from Concordia and Morehouse Parishes, and assisted by Myra Wiley of Bossier City. It was among the first three branches of the brand-new, “demonstration” Bossier Parish Library System (along with Plain Dealing and Haughton and Benton Headquarters), meant to give parish voters the opportunities to see the possibilities and value of a library system, initially operated with largely state and federal resources, and then vote to keep it going with local funding.

Homer T. Cox, chairman of the Bossier City Library Committee, announcing the opening in an article in the Shreveport Times on 20 Sept. 1940, said that about 2,000 books would be available at the Bossier City branch. (Now the Bossier City “branch” is considered the Central Library, and has about that many items for loan in the category of “Tween,” kids roughly age 9-12, alone!)

A prized photograph in the History Center’s collection shows the Bossier Branch Library in the court room spectator area of Bossier City Hall, Oct. 2, 1941. The low railing separating the the litigation (well) area and the public (spectator) areas can be seen in the foreground. (If a court session ran over into scheduled “library time,” library users would just have to wait).

In this photo, a group of servicemen in uniform and librarian Irma Rayne are shown sitting or standing, writing, reading or visiting. The photo is From Bossier Tribune, Oct. 2, 1941. The newspaper story with the photograph is titled, “Soldiers Enjoy Use of Library:”

“That soldiers on maneuver (training exercises in Louisiana to prepare for the event of US entry into WWII), lonely and far from home, find libraries a godsend is testified by the above photograph of soldiers making themselves at home in the Bossier City branch library. The library makes a standing offer of stationery and writing materials for any solder desiring to use them…Night after night soldiers appeared to seat themselves at the reading tables and write home. Others enjoyed the newspapers, current magazines and books provided by the library. All were pleased with the friendly hospitality shown them…[and] the library was pleased to be of service.”

The Bossier City branch remained there for several years before moving to a neighboring storefront location on Barksdale Blvd. In 1959, the library moved again to its current location on Benton Road (at the corner of Beckett Street.) This Benton Road location doubled in size with a 1967 expansion. A major remodel in 1988 resulted in the current library facility, which is facing Beckett Street.

In the early 1960s, the Bossier Parish Library announced plans to compile a collection of photographs, scrapbooks, and other information related to the history of the parish. These items were indexed and kept at the Bossier City branch. A dedicated history center opened in 1998, directly behind the Central Branch on Beckett Street. The building features large exhibit spaces and a storage room for archival material, and its adjacent but separate addition made the Central Library a complex of three different structures that had been pieced together over three decades.

We are excited that a new 39,000-plus square foot state-of-the-art facility has been built directly across Beckett Street from this complex at the corner of City Hall Drive. Features of the new library include large-capacity, multi-functional community meeting spaces and more computers and technology equipment. The current facility was built before computers were even available to the public! The expected move-in time for the Central Library is coming in March of 2024. The History Center will follow Central across the street several months later.

To learn more about any Bossier Parish library history, visit the Bossier Parish Library’s History Center, 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. The History Center is open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Photos:

• Soldiers on maneuvers using the Bossier City Branch library, located in the courtroom of old Bossier City Hall on Barksdale Blvd (currently home of the Bossier Arts Council). 1941.
• Bossier City Library in a storefront on Barksdale Blvd., downtown Bossier City, c. 1950.
• Bossier City Library on Benton Road, c.1959

Article by: Pam Carlisle