Mary I. Stanton, a charter member of the Woman’s Club of El Paso and a public school teacher. Had a wonderful library in her home and conducted a “Reading Room for Boys” in the old Sheldon Building to provide wholesome recreation for boys at a time when the streets of El Paso afforded doubtful forms of entertainment. This was the beginning of the establishment of the El Paso Public Library, the first children’s library in the U.S. Miss Stanton donated her books to form the nucleus of the library and the Womens Club members worked with her to establish it. Eventually the need for an independent library building was apparent, and in the next few years, under Marys leadership, grants were successfully sought from Andrew Carnegie. In 1904 the Carnegie library, located in the 500 block of North Oregon Street, was opened to the public (see CARNEGIE LIBRARIES). Mary Stanton resigned as president of the library board in 1903 but never gave up her strong interest in the library, as indicated by newspaper articles and correspondence up to the time of her death.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 23:54:23 +0000
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