Cherokee Public Library – Cherokee

Address:	Grand and 6th Streets, Cherokee, Oklahoma	County	Alfalfa
Started	1938	Completed	1938
Agencies:	WPA	NRHP:	No

Current Usage

Description:

The Cherokee Public Library is a two-story, square (60′ x 60′) structure constructed of yellow brick. The roof is flat with parapets capped by concrete blocks. A concrete stairway leads to a second story entrance framed by concrete jambs and a lintel. Metal casement windows with concrete sills and brick lintels are singly spaced along the second story with a continuous concrete frieze running above them. Bottom floor windows have concrete sills and a continuous concrete lintel. A small stone addition protecting a lower level entryway has been added to the northwest side; however, the building retains its architectural integrity.
There is no resource more exceptional in a community than a library, especially when nothing existed previously and it was the only one in the county. That was and remains the circumstance of the Cherokee Public Library, a resource made possible by the WPA. For 48 years now the library has enhanced the community’s quality of life with an array of services made possible only by its physical plant. In many ways the building is the center of Cherokee’s cultural life. Upon its construction, by pouring some 16,000 man-hours of wages into the local economy, the library also helped to alleviate some of the distress of the dust bowl and the depression–both for the community and the destitute worker finding employment on the project. The building is also an important resource to Cherokee architecturally in that its vernacular style symbolizes a government work program designed as much to preserve the human spirit as the national economy. Currently used by Baptist Church.[1]

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: Lots 1 and the north half of Lot 2, Block 55, Titus Addition to Cherokee original.