Colored Library Association of Savannah

Colored Library Association of Savannah is a Georgia historical marker in Chatham County, dedicated 2014.

At the front of the library to the left of the stairs.

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

In 1906, eleven African-American men formed the Colored Library Association of Savannah and established the Library for Colored Citizens. They acquired the original collection from personal libraries and public donations of books and periodicals. In 1913, the Association successfully petitioned the Carnegie Corporation of New York for funds to build a permanent home for the collection. The Carnegie grant program funded construction of thousands of public libraries worldwide. Dedicated in 1914 and completed in 1915, the library was designed by local architect Julian deBruyn Kops and is one of Savannah's few examples of Prairie School architecture. One of only two Carnegie library projects for African Americans in Georgia, this was the home library to James Alan McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning short story writer and essayist and Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1863 · Sketch of sea coast of South Carolina and Georgia from Bull's Bay to Ossabaw Sound (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1874 · Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1895 · Gen. map IX. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1903 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1942 · Savannah, South Carolina (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud), 1874, covering the location of Colored Library Association of Savannah, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud), 1874, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

Colored Library Association of Savannah

Historical maps covering this location

More markers nearby