Early Omaha: Gateway to the West

Florence Branch Library - Opened 1923

In 1923, 600 proud citizens formed the Florence Improvement Club. The club hosted a lively fundraising event that featured Scotch songs in costume, French dancing, a dramatic sketch and other family attractions. The entertainment program raised $100 (equivalent to almost $1,100 by today’s standards) for books, and with those funds the community of Florence saw its first public library opened in the Florence Building on North 30th Street.

Twelve years later, in 1935, The Florence Branch Library was split into sub-branches, ostensibly to serve a larger area. However, the citizens of Florence experienced the split as a clandestine maneuver to deprive them of their library services, according to an Omaha World-Herald article (Feb. 14, 1935). The unhappy community felt they had lost their library, and the split didn’t last long. Within 30 days the Citizens Committee for the Restoring of the Florence Branch Library was formed, a resolution was printed in the Florence Times (March 15, 1935), and the Florence Branch Library was restored to its original location.

It’s fun to note that in 1945, the library had no phone and was open only a few hours a week, on Fridays from 1 to 8 p.m. The Florence Branch Library joined a community center in a new building at 30th and Bondesson in 1976 and became the Florence Branch Library and Recreation Center.

Text from "Literary bites: 125 years and Still Cooking:
Omaha Public Library Cookbook"
Written by Cookbook and History Commitee, 2002

Branches | Abrahams | Benson
Florence | Millard | Sorensen | South
Swanson | Washington | Willa Cather

Library History Home | History | People and Staff | Services