As early as 1802 the town of Harrodsburg recognized the need for a library, with one resident writing to President Thomas Jefferson to ask what books he thought would be best for our community. These ideas continued to grow and spread until the city founded its first subscription library in 1824.
In 1895, Harrodsburg citizens Magoffin Hardin and his wife Jennie pitched the idea of a public library to the community. With the aid of the Harrodsburg Women’s Club and the city council, the Harrodsburg Public Library was founded in the basement of the old courthouse. Many grateful residents donated books from their personal collections to fill the shelves.
On May 7, 1907, the library moved to a new home on West Poplar Street, where it would reside for almost sixty years, seeing the county through two world wars and the Great Depression. In July 1965, the library moved to Morgan Row, thanks to the help of community members who formed a book bucket brigade to move the collection to its new home.
In February 1976, the library – now called the Mercer County Public Library – moved again to West Lexington Street, where it now resides. That same year the library received a new tool to reach readers outside the city limits – the library’s first bookmobile!
The library would flourish on this site, expanding over the years to accommodate the needs of its patrons. In 2011, the library was expanded to include additional computers, a larger meeting room, more shelf space, two study rooms, a reading garden, a genealogy room, and a reading room centered around a fireplace. The library grew again in 2023 when the History Research Center was opened next door to the main building. It houses thousands of photographs, letters, newspapers, and books related to genealogy and local history, as well as a digitization center that allows visitors to access and preserve their own history no matter the format on which it is stored.
Throughout its first two hundred years, library service in Mercer County has evolved and expanded to meet the needs of local residents. The Mercer County Public Library is committed to ensuring that the same ideals of community, service, freedom of information, and growth endure for the next two hundred years.
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