Who We Are

In 1852, the Ladies Magazine Club (later the Ladies Reading Circle) solicited and donated over 1,000 books to establish the first Bastrop Library. The Library fell on hard times and in 1927, it was closed. Bastrop did not have a library again until 1962, when the Jaycettes (a women's organization) adopted the library as a civic project.

Working with the Bastrop City Council, they opened the Belle Moore Jones Memorial Library using Mrs. Jones' personal library as the core of the library's collection. On June 6, 1971, a new air-conditioned building was opened with a collection of 3,000 volumes and Katie Browning as the full-time librarian. This building is currently the Bastrop Senior Center. On March 29, 1974, the Bastrop City Council passed a resolution stating that the City will own, operate, and maintain a municipal library and will provide a new facility for housing the Library and assume full responsibility for its operation. In September 1978, the Library joined the Texas State Library system and became a member of the Central Texas Library System. In October 1986, the Bastrop City Council voted to give the Library a location for new construction if they could raise $100,000. They also voted to match the money raised. In August 1987, the City Council gave the library the old City Warehouse property at 1100 Church Street and set aside the rest of the $234,000 needed for construction. In 1989, the Library opened its doors at 1100 Church Street. In 2003, the citizens of Bastrop passed a bond to triple the size of the library. This construction was completed in 2006. Our current library is 18,000 square feet and houses a collection of over 48,500 items.

The mission of the Bastrop Public Library is to provide free and unrestricted access to informational, educational, cultural, and recreational library materials and services in a clean, comfortable, secure environment for people of all ages.