{"nrhp_refnum":"09000725","name":"Surles, W.R. Memorial Library","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"105 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Proctorville","county":"Robeson County","state":"NC","lat":34.47646061900008,"lon":-79.03749118299999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-09-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small, one-story, front-gabled brick library building at 105 West Main Street in Proctorville, Robeson County, North Carolina, completed in January 1951 and finished in the Colonial Revival style.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the library is locally significant under Criterion A for education. During the 1950s it was the only library open to the general public in southeastern Robeson County. It was privately run by the R. C. Lawrence Book Club and funded through a gift and bequest from local businessman Willis R. Surles, and it succeeded a mid-1930s library in the town.","narrative":"Proctorville, a small farming town in Robeson County, North Carolina, is home to a diminutive brick library measuring twenty feet by thirty feet. Built by T. A. Nye and Sons of Fairmont and completed in 1951, it is finished in the Colonial Revival style, with a pedimented portico, a six-panel door, double-hung windows and a small louvered cupola. Inside, shelves line the side and rear walls of the main room, and the walls are finished in pine boards. The library was made possible by Willis R. Surles, a former teacher and county school superintendent, who gave a lot and left $2,000 in his will. It replaced a smaller library he had donated in the 1930s. The R. C. Lawrence Book Club, organized in 1939, ran it as a private lending library. During the 1950s it was the only library open to the general public in southeastern Robeson County, giving rural families access to books outside the schools. It is still in use.","period_of_significance":"1951-1959","architect_builder":"T.A. Nye and Sons, Builder","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The library continues to serve the community and is described as well maintained by the R. C. Lawrence Book Club.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:52.69942-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/7219/47721968/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/09000725.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000725/7784d5d416-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000725/7784d5d416-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Gerry Dincher from Hope Mills, NC","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:W.R._Surles_Memorial_Library.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Gerry Dincher from Hope Mills, NC</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:W.R._Surles_Memorial_Library.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721968","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.R._Surles_Memorial_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24436267"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/robeson-county/surles-w-r-memorial-library-09000725/"}