After several construction delays, Central Library was officially dedicated on January 30, 1971. The collection of some 30,000 books was moved from the old Prince William Courthouse annex on Lee Avenue in downtown Manassas to the new library, located at 8601 Mathis Avenue, on land sandwiched between the towns of Manassas and Manassas Park. The land was donated by Manassas Park. At the time of the dedication, Philip Place was Library Director and Barbara Kirby was chair of the Board of Trustees. In 1971, the County Library also had a bookmobile and one other location: a room at the GarField Administration Building (now a Police Station). Today, Prince William Public Libraries totals 12 branches spanning from Potomac Library in Woodbridge to Haymarket Gainesville Library in Haymarket.
At the same time Central was opened, the Ruth E. Lloyd History Room (also known as the Virginiana Room) was also created. It honored Ruth Emmons Lloyd, a long-time library trustee who had led the Manassas Women’s Club in 1952 in their petition to obtain the first demonstration public library in Virginia, supported by the state library and the county government.
One of the many civic groups with which Mrs. Lloyd was involved was the Bethlehem Good Housekeeping Club, which published a county history in 1941: Prince William: the Story of Its People and Its Places. While attending a club meeting at Central Library on May 19, 1971, Mrs. Lloyd suffered a heart attack and died at age 79.
During its first decade, Anda S. Lind, manager of adult services at Central also managed the Virginiana collection. Ms. Lind, now retired, later managed Bull Run Regional Library. Mrs. Katherine Pattie Conner maintained the new room, setting up its rare book collection, its serials, and vertical files. Mrs. Conner had been an administrative assistant with the library since the 1950s and periodically was put in charge of all library activities. She retired in 1986 and died in 2005 at the age of 95.
In 1979, Don Wilson was hired to manage the collection, renamed RELIC in 1994 when it moved to Bull Run Library. The collection returned to Central Library in 2020, into a larger space that incorporates the small room where the collection was first established in 1971. Visit Central Library to learn more about RELIC and its collection, or learn more online at pwcva.gov/relic.
