Historical Marker
Carnegie Library
Houston, Chickasaw County · Mississippi
Erected 1976
In 1908 L. B. Reid, superintendent of the Houston public schools, wrote to Andrew Carnegie about a library. Carnegie answered with $6,000 for a building and equipment, if Houston paid for upkeep. The town bought a lot from merchant W. D. Atkinson, and the library was built in 1909. It was the state's first free public library of real size; earlier ones were subscription libraries in Natchez and Holly Springs and a Biloxi collection of about 100 volumes. Its architect is unknown, and its style mixes Prairie and Western Stick.
Where it stands
33.89661, -89.00112 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Chickasaw Council House — 20 miA roadside exhibit on the Natchez Trace Parkway marking the Chickasaw capital of the 1820s and the council house where the 1832 treaty of Pontotoc Creek ended Chickasaw title to Mississippi.
- Howlin' Wolf Memorial and Blues Trail Marker — 29 miA Mississippi Blues Trail marker and granite memorial on East Broad Street honoring Chester Burnett, who was born nearby in 1910 and became the Chicago blues giant Howlin' Wolf.
- Tupelo National Battlefield — 29 miA one-acre park on Main Street marking the July 1864 battle of Tupelo, a Union victory that kept Nathan Bedford Forrest away from Sherman's supply line, with Black soldiers among the defenders.
More markers nearby
- Bukka White — 0.5 mi
- William Colbert's Last Homesite — 12 mi
- Egypt Station — 16 mi
- Battle of Okolona — 16 mi