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Deposit stations and libraries throughout Washington County

Sharpsburg book station

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Picture taken outside M.L. Burgan's store in Sharpsburg. The store was probably in what is now Cap'n Benders Tavern, next to O. T. Reilly's.

Beulah Eyerley was in charge of the Sharpsburg branch, located in a store in town.
 

Leaving Keedysville Station

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B.K.E. is Beulah Katherine Eyerley, the librarian at Keedysville. The book collections were available for borrowing in local stores. This photograph is from a collection of her photographs.

Open air story hour, Smithsburg

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The stone house, used at one point as a jail, was purchased by the Women's Club in 1921 and fitted as a Library. This Smithsburg Community Library is open two days in the week, one day for the school children and the other for the general public. With this branch there is a constant exchange of books from the main library.

(From Anniversary booklet)

From a July 29, 1926 newspaper account, quoting Lillian Barkdoll:

A case of books in a country store

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This Washington County Free Library book deposit station was housed in a country store. The words "Washington County Free Library, Highfield Branch" were painted on the lid, which is stored on top of the deposit box. Highfield was a mile from Pen Mar Park. It received its first collection in 1903-1904 and I.M. Grubine was in charge.

Inside Black Rock School

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The book wagon visited schools throughout the county to deliver books that were stored in the box in the schoolroom. The wooden box in the left corner is the collection of books. One of the sides of the box has "Washington County Free Library, Black Rock Branch" painted on it.

The date written on the blackboard is Sept 21 -06.

School room, Black Rock

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In the corner of the school room is a box with Washington County Free Library on it, so the school acted as a deposit station.

At one point there were small packages of books from the library sent each year to 127 classrooms in the county (50th anniversary booklet).