The Texas Room is dedicated specifically to materials about Texas and Southwestern history.
The renovation of the Texas Room has been a long-time goal of the library staff. While the library was closed to the public during the 2020 start of the pandemic, staff was able to focus on this project and complete it.
The Texas Room collection began with a donation from Ruth Margaret Poling. She donated her father C.L. McClellan's substantial collection of rare and valuable books on Texas and the Southwestern U.S. in 1965. Additional materials from other donors and materials purchased by the library have grown the initial gift. The collection had its own room at the Kemp Library from 1965-1998 and was part of the Prothro Genealogical Research Center in the present building from 1998 to 2006.
Currently, the Texas Room holds over 3,000 volumes of nonfiction, nearly 500 biographies and autobiographies, and about 150 novels. The items cannot be checked out but can be accessed by researchers and scholars for in-library use. The new reference room has tables and chairs for study and a library catalog computer station.
The room also features a unique special touch: a quilt consisting of one-of-a-kind blocks colored by library patrons.
The Texas Room is available all hours the library is open for browsing and research of the Texas Reference collection. To access the room, please stop by the Service Desk for information and entry.
Check out our 3D Virtual Library Tour to see inside!
Small groups interested in using the Texas Room for research together should e-mail Andrew Jelen at andrew.jelen@wfpl.net to make arrangements.