|
In 1947 the Jasper County Library was invited to become a member of the
Allendale - Hampton Regional Library. The establishment of the county library was
sponsored by the Jasper County Council of Farm Women under the leadership of Mrs. Betty
Berry, Home Demonstration agent for the county. Where it had formerly been
impossible for Jasper County to provide county-wide library service, through cooperation
in the regional library system a county library headquarters was established in Ridgeland
and rural library service provided by bookmobile to the entire county.
In the late 1960's a wealthy winter
resident, Mrs. Richard K. Webel became interested in the Jasper County Library and gave
the library many valuable gifts. In 1970 in memory of her former husband she
provided funds to completely renovate and restore a building in the town of Ridgeland to
serve as headquarters of the Jasper County Library. In addition to the work of
restoration and decoration, the grounds of the library were elaborately landscaped with
flowers and shrubs indigenous to the area. The building was named in honor of Mrs.
Webel's former husband the F.R. Pratt Memorial Library and dedicated in November 1971.
Estellene P. Walker,
"So Good and Necessary a Work": The Public Library in South
Carolina,1968-1980
(Columbia: South Carolina State Library,
1981), pp.6-7 |
