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A History of the Campbell County Public Library System

The Campbell County Public Library System consists of four branches: Campbell County Public Library in Rustburg, Patrick Henry Memorial Library in Brookneal, Staunton River Memorial Library in Altavista, and Timbrook Library in Lynchburg. For over 100 years, local groups, particularly women’s clubs, have created and promoted public libraries in their community.

Campbell County has been the home to public libraries since 1918. That year, a local Boy Scout troop created a book exchange in downtown Altavista. After many iterations, the Altavista Woman’s Club created the Altavista Library Association in 1956, which formed the basis for the current library. Elsewhere in Campbell County, other libraries began to gain momentum. A group of women in Brookneal formed the Patrick Henry Memorial Library in 1939. Also in that year, locals in Rustburg turned a single room in the old clerk’s office into the Campbell County Reading Room. The Timbrook Women’s Club created the Timbrook Library in 1965, located in a small house on Timberlake Road.

In 1966, the Campbell County Public Library in Rustburg opened as a demonstration library, operated by the Library of Virginia. By 1968, the Board of Supervisors took over operation of CCPL, making it a free public library. The early library featured a bookmobile, which traveled around Campbell County. In 1981, CCPL gave its bookmobile to rejuvenate the Timbrook Library, which had closed its doors a few years prior.

The Campbell County Public Library System began in 1982, when PHML joined CCPL. Timbrok Library soon followed suit. By 1986, the Altavista Library joined, which brought together the four current branches of the Campbell County Public Library System.

The libraries soon found themselves growing beyond their walls. Between 1920 and 1986, the Altavista Library moved through various buildings, including the First National Bank, a local boarding house, Town Hall, a room above the Vista Theater, a cottage where the Altavista Combined School now sits, and the War Memorial Building on Franklin Avenue. In 1985, Timbrook Library moved from the bookmobile into two converted classrooms and a teacher’s lounge at Brookville Middle School.

In 1986, CCPL moved to its present facility on Village Highway in Rustburg. That same year, the Altavista Library moved into the current building on Washington Street, and changed its name to the Staunton River Memorial Library. By 1992, thanks to donations from the community, PHML was able to purchase and renovate its current location on Lynchburg Avenue in Brookneal. That same year, the Timbrook Library moved to the Southwood Village Shopping Center. The Campbell County Public Library Foundation formed to take on the capital plan, and after years of soliciting donations from the community and working with CCPLS, the County, and local funding partners, the Timbrook Library on Leesville Avenue opened in 2016.

Although our libraries have undergone significant changes over the past century, one thing has remained constant: Our community has always held a passion for public libraries and the open accessibility of information for all. We hope to continue nurturing this trend in the century to come.