New St. Helena Branch Library opens Wednesday

Under construction since October, 2011, the new St. Helena Branch Library is slated to open this Wednesday, October 17.

The library is at 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Road.

Here are details from a release:

This new building will allow the St. Helena Island and Lady's Island communities enjoy their own free standing Library filled with state of the art technology. The public will have access to numerous computers throughout the library as well as the latest publications of books. The children's section is filled with arts and crafts and storytime and the teens have their own section equipped with a video production lab and Wii.

"It's been so many years since this idea of a new St. Helena Library was first mentioned and now to see all the hard work by so many pay off, is just amazing" said County Administrator Gary Kubic.

The St. Helena Branch Library will be open during the following hours: Mondays: 1pm-8pm, Tuesdays: 10am-5pm, Wednesdays: 1pm-8pm, Thursdays: 10am-5pm, Fridays: 1pm-5pm, Saturdays: 9am-5pm, Sundays: Closed

The road leading to the library is named after Jonathan Francis, the first African American principal of Penn School and also the first principal of the consolidated St. Helena High School in 1953. But this isn’t how his career in education began. Mr. Francis first became an agriculture teacher and principal of M.C. Riley School in Bluffton in 1940. There he met his wife who was also a teacher.