ODESSA, Texas — If you want to check out a book in Odessa, the Ector County Library is most likely the place you would go.
Stocked with all sorts of books you can choose from, this library sitting on 5th St. is the place to be, and has been for the past 85 years.
However they weren’t always sitting on 5th St., in fact, you’d never guess where this Odessa staple had its start.
"So our courthouse library was an old jail house," Amber Stewart, managing librarian of the Southwest History and Genealogy Department, said.
The jailhouse housed 800 donated books when it started in 1938.
"They wanted it by the Courthouse Square to redo the building, and only cost around $900," Stewart said. "The Women's Clubs and the Clubs of Odessa had come together trying to figure out how to get a library in Odessa. And that's whenever they had reached out to Austin at the Capital and found out that they would give $1000 to set up a library in Odessa for the county."
The jailhouse location had two stories, the second later being a children’s department.
Two stories, manned by one woman.
"Miss Lila Box White, was our first librarian in 1938 is whenever she was hired, she was hired for $125 at most a year," Stewart said. "She had been a teacher at OHS for two years before she ended up being hired as the sole employee of the first Ector County Library. [...] And so, for a complete year, she was by herself until 1939 whenever they finally hired her an assistant."
And Miss White needed a little more than just an assistant, because the library was growing book by book, quickly.
Within the first year the collection grew from 800 to 2,500. And the books just kept on coming.
"By 1942, they had over 6000," Stewart said. "So within a short amount of time, we had grown because in 1942 was whenever we moved to our second location, which grew exponentially."
The second location was located on N Lee from 1943 to 1981, expanding in 1957.
In 20 years, the library went from 800 to almost 51,000 books, about 63 times more books than in 1938.
According to their Facebook, they even became the first library in the United States to obtain the 1967 copyright of “The New Webster Library of Universal Knowledge”, a 26-book encyclopedia set in one volume.
"And they thrived there and did pretty well," said Howard Marks, director of the library.
Pretty well was an understatement - as like the Odessa population - they yet again outgrew their location after 39 prosperous years with a whopping 300,000 item inventory.
That’s where the vast current location comes in, which, let’s just say can handle the monstrous book amount, as they moved in 1981. The building is four times as big as the second library.
"This space became available," Marks said. "And this was the Headlee Medical Building. And we've been in here ever since."
There’s a reason the Ector County Library celebrated its 85-year anniversary this year.
They’ve been among the best libraries not just in the area, but in Texas.
"In the '70s we were checking out so many books that we were beating in Lubbock in the surrounding areas that for a long time, our library was known as the best between El Paso and Fort Worth," Stewart said. "So we've offered a lot of services that have made our library stand out."
And despite being much smaller than a lot of Texas libraries, like Odessa, this library has shown they can hang.
"It had been the 14th most circulated library in Texas even though we were like the 20th largest by population," Stewart said.
And the growing hasn’t stopped since, as the Ector County Library has followed the trajectory of the city it resides in in terms of growth.
"Our buildings have grown with the population," Stewart said. "Whenever we first started, Odessa was not as big as it is now. Now we're over 100,000 people. And so compared to our population, our square footage has grown to be able to have more materials to meet more people's needs."
And don’t expect this library to stop growing anytime soon. Over 85 years, physical copies may add up, but they also turn the page to a more technology-friendly chapter.
"So as the years have gone by, we started off with just physical books now we offer so much more like digital books through Hoopla, Libby," Stewart said. "The library has just kind of grown with the community. "
The ever-growing expansion of the library goes to show just how much you can accomplish in Odessa.
Whether you start from your basement or a jailhouse, maybe in 85 years you can also accomplish just how much the Ector County Library has.
Because if the little old library that started with one worker can become what it is today, 85 years later, anyone can. It just takes a little reading between the lines.