Mission Statement

The mission of the Eustis Memorial Library is to make available to its community the opportunity to experience a high quality of public library services, and to provide access to information resources, staff, facilities and services that respond to the pursuit of knowledge, education, lifelong learning, cultural enrichment and recreational reading and listening.

History

Eustis Memorial Library is a service provided by the City of Eustis as directed by the Eustis City Commission, and is a member library of the Lake County Library System. It is a department of City government as administered by the City Manager, with a Library Board of Trustees appointed by the City Commission to advise on matters of policy and procedure.

The Eustis Public Library Association was organized at the call of Mayor Henry W. Bishop on January 7th, 1902. The library’s first books were donated by private citizens, and 2nd floor rooms in the Block Building were rented with donated funds. In 1907, the library moved to the downstairs of the Block Building to rent rooms at the cost of $4.00 a month.

In 1912, The Library Association purchased the 1 ½ story Aber Cottage on Grove Street between Magnolia and Orange Avenues (about where City Hall stands today) for $1,200. Mrs. Clark, the librarian, moved into the upstairs and maintained the library downstairs. In 1916, The Library Association acquired 2 lots to the south of their property, and began raising funds to build a new library building.

The Library later moved into a new building on the corner of Grove Street and Orange Avenue, now known as City Hall. Cary Hardee, the 23rd Governor of Florida, dedicated the building on May 1st, 1923 at a ceremony attended by at least 250 people. The new library building cost an extraordinary $12,843.54 to build (the equivalent of over $228,000 today), with landscaping donated by Dr. J. J. Ervin. In December, Rufus A. Perry, Commander of the American Legion, asked that the name “Eustis Public Library” be changed to “Eustis Memorial Library” in honor of those soldiers who had given their lives in World War I.

In 1927, the Library Board of Trustees entered into an agreement with the City to transfer all property and real estate to the City of Eustis, upon the condition that the City collect a tax each year to be used for the maintenance of the library. At this time, Frank Waterman and other citizens donated money and books from their private collections. Other gift money came from the P.E.O. Sisters, the Business & Professional Women’s Club, the Eustis Woman’s Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion, and the Ladies of the Catholic Church.

In March of 1985, the Library moved into the building where it still operates today, occupying an entire City block on N. Center Street and E. Magnolia Avenue. Volunteers from the community lined up starting at the Library’s old location on Grove Street to the current location on Center Street, passing books along from one building to the other. The N. Center Street building has previously been occupied by many businesses, including a Winn-Dixie, a laundromat, a shoe store, a barber shop, a beauty salon, and an optometrist’s office. The building had last been a roller skating rink when renovations started.

Today, the Library offers a collection of 100,000+ items, a robust schedule of programs for all ages, rotating exhibits featuring the work of local artists, a bookstore, e-books, databases, WiFi, public access computers, device charging stations, mobile printing and more.