Hannibal Square Library

Hannibal Square Library was a library established to serve the Black community in Winter Park, Florida that operated from 1937 to 1979. In 1881, the Hannibal Square neighborhood was built to house to Black families who worked for white residents and visitors and in the railroad or service industry. In 1936, Mertie Graham Grover, a former teacher, was hit by a car and killed in Winter Park. Her husband, Rollins College professor Dr. Edwin O. Grover, started a fund to build a library in her memory in the Hannibal Square neighborhood that would serve the Black residents who were barred by segregation laws from using the county library. The Hannibal Square Public Library-Mertie Graham Grover Memorial was built on the north side of West New England Avenue near Pennsylvania Avenue, next to the Black elementary school. It opened on July 1, 1937. In the 1950s, the library began to receive some funding from the city, although less than the public library received. In 1955, a children's room was added, funded with donations of time, labor and money. In 1962 and 1963, the Winter Park Public Library changed its policies to allow all residents, regardless of race, to access its library services. In 1968, Hannibal Square Library became a branch of the Winter Park Public Library. In 1979, the Hannibal Square library closed when the 460 East New England Avenue library opened. The Hannibal Square building was moved to a place behind the Winter Park Community Center.