Southside Branch Library
The Southside Branch Library (or Birmingham Public Library Southside Branch) is a branch of the Birmingham Public Library located at 1814 11th Avenue South on the small triangular block south of 10th Court South between the Southside Post Office and Southside Baptist Church at 19th Street South.
The original library serving the area was established in 1945 as the Thomas Duke Parke Memorial Library in the former Thomas Parke residence on the same site. Parke, a pediatrician and co-founder of Children's Hospital, and his wife, Amy, left the property, along with an endowment, to the city for use as a library.
In 1955, with funding from the Parkes' endowment, the branch, then called the Parke Memorial Branch Library, moved into a purpose-built building at the same site. That building was demolished for the current, larger library which opened on March 17, 1996.
The sculpture "The Reader" by Joe Theo Waldrop was dedicated at the library on April 29, 1984, and was re-installed outside the main entrance of the current building on 11th Avenue.
Head librarians
References
- Birmingham Public Library Board (1945) "A Tribute to Dr. and Mrs. Parke on the Opening of the Thomas Duke Parke Memorial Library."