Slossfield Library
The Slossfield Branch Library (formerly the Slossfield Center Library) was a branch of the Birmingham Public Library located at 1916 25th Court North in the Slossfield community of Acipco-Finley, adjoining North Birmingham.
The library was founded in 1939 as a project of the ACIPCO Negro Auxiliary Board, made up of African-American employees of the American Cast Iron Pipe Company, and originated inside the Slossfield Community Center built by ACIPCO with New Deal grant funding and WPA labor. It was only the second library open to black patrons in Birmingham, after the Booker T. Washington Library, then located downtown in the Colored Masonic Temple Building. Even after the branch was absorbed into the Birmingham Public Library system, the Negro Auxiliary Board continued to present annual checks to the city for the betterment of the branch.
By 1944 the Slossfield library had a 2,271 members with access to a collection of over 3,000 volumes. Average daily circulation was more than 100 items. Members of the children's "Victory Reading Club" earned certificates for meeting reading goals.
A new building for the small library was built to the east of the Community Center, and just west of Lewis Elementary School. In 1960 $130,000 in bond funding for construction of the new library was approved by the Birmingham City Commission. The new one-story steel-framed building with clerestory windows was dedicated in 1966.
The Slossfield Branch was threatened with closure in 1980, but remained open. It was one of three libraries forced to close due to budget shortfalls in 2010. The former library became part of the Salvation Army's "Center of Hope" project in 2016.
References
- Jones, Daisy G. (August 25, 1944) "Colored employees present four beautiful pictures to Slossfield Center Library" ACIPCO News. Vol. 29, No.9, p. 16 - via Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections
- Wolfson, Hannah (June 18, 2010) "Three Birmingham library branches to close by end of July." The Birmingham News