The Olivia Raney Library

The first public library in Wake County, the Olivia Raney Library was chartered in 1899 in downtown in memory of Olivia Raney, Richard Beverly Raney’s beloved wife and the organist at Christ Church, who passed away on May 4, 1896. Funding was hard to obtain for the chartering of a library, so Raney gave a free library for all white people of the city. The building cost Raney $ 45,000 and was 45 by 91 feet and three stories high, excluding the basement. The second floor housed the library room while the third floor contained the music hall. Raleigh’s first library officially opened January 24, 1901. Mr. Raney was ill during the ceremonies, so Olivia Raney’s pastor made the presentation to the city for Mr. Raney.

Jennie Coffin, a close friend of Olivia Raney, was named librarian, so she and her assistant learned the Dewey Decimal System and managed the library, keeping it open from 10 am to 10 pm weekdays except for legal holidays, a day in October for taking inventory, and May 4, in memory of Mrs. Raney’s death date. The initial collection of books cost Mr. Raney $ 4,164. 45 for nearly 5000 books. Raleigh citizens donated another 250 volumes during the first year as well. Often, 100 people visited the library at one time. About 75 percent of the books checked out were fiction, while juvenile books made up one-third of the circulation.

The circulation regulations were fairly strict: no one under 12 could obtain a borrower’s card; those under 18 had to have the written permission of a parent, guardian, or responsible adult; and no one under 12 could use the reading room. Only citizens could borrow books, and temporary visitors and students at colleges and schools in Raleigh had to pay a temporary deposit of $2 in order to borrow a book. A person could only check out 1 or 2 books at a time.

The library did not manage to support itself, and frequent requests for help from the city produced little support. Mr. Raney continued to support the facility until December 8, 1909, when he died suddenly after an illness. He left the library an endowment of $ 2,000 to be invested and the income spent for painting the outside of the building every 2 years and for other repairs if possible. Coffin and her assistant, Mrs. J. S. Atkinson, often broke rules in order to get books into the hands of children and unserved people.

By 1916, space was an issue. In 1917, Jennie Coffin passed away at age 62, after months of illness. Mrs. Atkinson took over as the new librarian. She tried progressive moves just as Coffin had. Atkinson recommended a few hours of opening on Sunday afternoons for reading, not checking books out. In 1921, a children’s alcove was created, but it did not provide children with much, and finally in 1922, a children’s department was opened and music was added for story hours. Teachers could obtain special cards and check out as many as 10 books for teaching purposes. Space continued to be the main problem.

Books were distributed to hospitals and community areas starting in 1928. The use of the Olivia Raney Library grew and continued to be of value to the community. The Great Depression impacted services, but in 1935, the library managed to open the Richard B. Harrison Library for black people. The building used was a storefront in the Delaney Building on Hargett Street. Mrs. Mollie Lee, a professional librarian, served this new facility.
Repairs were made as they could be afforded during the next years, and then on June 22, 1940, Mrs. Atkinson died in Rex Hospital after a month of illness. She had served for more than thirty years; she had been the first to recognize the need for county-wide services.

The new librarian of the Olivia Raney Library came in the fall of 1940, Clyde Smith, the first professional librarian to hold the position. She served for the next 27 years, overseeing the addition of bookmobiles and expanded service to the black community when the relocation of the Richard B. Harrison Library was accomplished in 1948 to the former Koonz Furniture store on South Blount Street. This was the first separate housing of the library’s growing Negro Collection, spearheaded by Mollie Lee. In 1948, the collection numbered about 1000 volumes.
Space problems continued even as walk-in bookmobiles were added during 1953-54. Finally in 1960, when the original Raney Library building was deemed unsafe, the Trust found the three-story S. H. Kress department store on Fayetteville Street, near the old facility, and bought the facility to hold until the city could buy the building with funds from a city bond referendum the next year. The Trust would concede its control of the Olivia Raney Library to a library commission in Wake County in 1965, the first step to creating what would become the Wake County Library System.
The development of community libraries continued with the opening of the Cary Public Library in 1960, as well as the Wake Forest Library in 1961. In December 1962, the Olivia Raney Library closed to move to the new building (in the old Kress store), and it reopened January 3, 1963. By February 1966, the original building was demolished since it was considered structurally unsafe. March 1966, a Director of Libraries position was established.

Growth continued with the new Harrison branch on New Bern Avenue in 1967, and Mollie Lee, librarian for 37 years, retired after a marvelous career helping people who were not served adequately by the library system.
In 1978, Edmund Aycock, Stewart Adcock, Betty Ann Knudsen, and Bob Heater were elected commissioners in working toward the unified public system of today. Betty Ann Knudsen considers herself the “Mother of the Wake County Library System.”

The system’s first regional library opened in Cameron Village Shopping Center in 1985. In August 1996, the new Olivia Raney History Library opened, and the first branch of the system with the Electronic Information Center opened March 1997.

From the desire to bring books to a community and honor his wife’s memory, Richard Raney established a library system that has grown along with the community. The importance of bringing knowledge to all people has driven the growth of the Olivia Raney Library and the entire Wake County System over the last one hundred plus years.

Works Cited

Dicks, Roy C. Wake County Public Libraries: A Souvenir Centennial History 1901- 2001.

“About Your Library,” Retrieved 31 March 2003 from http://www.wakego.com/countylibraries/aboutyour library/default.htm

 

© 2003 Elaine Jenkins