Library Mission & History
The Park Hills Public Library Mission Statement
The Park Hills Public Library is dedicated to meeting the informational, educational, and recreational needs of the community by serving as a center of reliable information.
Our goal is to respond to the users needs by providing and organized collection of print and non-print materials, a friendly and well trained staff, and to create a pleasant environment for educational and recreational needs.
Library History
In 1934 the "Flat River" Public Library was first started as a F.E.R.A. Project-the government , for a time, furnished the services of two people as librarians, the Flat River school board furnished space in the Domestic Arts Building and the Flat River citizens furnished books and funds for additional books.
Starting with between 200 -300 books, 50 of which were given to the library by the St. Louis Public Library, the library grew to a point where it included, in addition to magazines, 2500 volumes.
For the first two years of its life the library was carried on by various projects and some of the time the two librarians, Mrs.P.G. Keith and Mrs. Clyde Cunningham worked without any pay.
On December 7, 1936, under Mayor McGraw, the city, by Ordinance 53 took over the library at the request of the library group . It was at that time a nine member board was formed.
In 1967 and new library was constructed at 8 Wood St. On January 1, 1994, the towns of Flat River, Elvins , Rivermines, and Esther consolidated to form the town of Park Hills and the library was renamed The Park Hills Public Library. It stayed at the same location until 2008 when the State of Missouri donated the former Employment Office building at 16 S. Coffman St. for use as a new library. The new library hosted a ribbon cutting at this new location on October 6, 2008.