Salter Hahira Library

History:

Perhaps no other neighborhood library in the South Georgia Regional Library System was built amid more controversy than the Walter R. & Dorothy S. Salter Memorial Library in Hahira, Georgia. For many years, the public library consisted of a few thousand books in a small room in City Hall, operated by Jackie Matthews and open only on Thursday afternoons. Then, the state of Georgia launched a massive grant program to its cities, promising funds that would pay 90 percent of construction and furnishings to local governments that matched funds and provided land. Hahira citizens found their population was divided down the middle, torn between serious water and sewage needs and their own public library. But, in the end, Hahira, which was known during the 1920s as the Queen Bee Capitol of the World, received a honey of a library, which opened on March 12, 1989. The library acquired its name from Walter R. Salter, a former mayor, councilman, and local business owner who had long desired a library for the community. Upon his death in 1984, the dream unrealized, his wife Dorothy came forward with a gift of $30,000. Dorothy was present at the library's formal dedication and Clara Vinson was named as the first manager.

Upon Vinson's retirement in 1992, Janet Register was named as library manager and remains in the position today. A seasoned storyteller, her mission is to use the spoken word to draw reluctant readers to books, a vision which continues to launch new and exciting programs available nowhere else.

Widely used by educators and home school families for its outstanding programs, the Salter Hahira Library has earned a reputation of utmost friendliness and hospitality. It has become without a doubt, a true community center for Hahira's citizens, and a touchstone for storytelling enthusiasts, well worth the miles one must travel north to visit.