Houston Public Library Unveils The African American Library at the Gregory School

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By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/15/2009

Houston’s first public elementary school for African Americans has been transformed into a special collection library of the Houston Public Library.

Houston Public Library Director Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson standing in front of the newly-opened African American Library at the Gregory School.

After a year and a half of renovations costing about $11.5 million, the African American Library at the Gregory School recently opened its doors to educators, students, researchers, and the residents of Houston, TX, who now have a wonderful new resource where they can explore and learn about the contributions of African Americans to the development of the city, says Sandra Fernandez, Houston Public Library's manager of public relations.

As one of the few African American libraries in the country, the Gregory School, a two-story, 20,000 square-foot building that’s been vacant since 1980, provides a wide collection of resources, such as reference books, rare books, archival materials, exhibits, artifacts, oral histories, and innovative programs to document the history of the African American experience in Houston and its surrounding areas in all areas of life, including the arts, education, business, and sports.

The African American Library at the Gregory School is the newest of three special collections operated by the Houston Public Library and the first library of its kind in Houston, Hernandez says. Community members are encouraged to provide oral histories, historic documents, and other materials to continue to help build the archival collection, which will be housed at this facility, located in historic Freedman’s Town at 1300 Victor St., Houston TX 77019,. With community participation, the facility is expected to become a one-of-a-kind research and cultural center, providing valuable information to the Houston community and the entire world. Some materials will also be digitized for online access, making the archival materials housed at this facility available to everyone online and in person.

As part of the complete renovation, the Gregory School’s windows were removed, carefully restored, and reinstalled. Bricks were carefully cleaned and preserved on the south, east, and west sides of the building, and covered with matching brick on the north side. The final result is a dramatic transformation of the existing, vacant structure to its original 1926 appearance.

The galleries at the African American Library at the Gregory School.

Space is provided on the first floor for temporary and permanent historical exhibits, a restored classroom, a digitizing photo lab, and receiving and processing of archives. The second floor features the reference collection, two reading rooms, closed archives, two conference rooms for researchers and visiting scholars, an oral history recording room, visiting scholars’ offices, and staff offices and work areas.

Now until April 11, 2010, visitors to the library will catch a photography exhibit entitled “Moments, Memories and Voices: Let Us Remember,” comprised of more than 50 photographs from the personal collection of photographer and artist, Earlie Hudnall Jr. and six mixed media works by longtime Fourth Ward resident, artist, and poet Naomi Polk, which chronicles Houston’s Fourth Ward’s recent past from 1969 to the present.