Main Street Library

Branch Highlights

Virginiana Room Collection of Local History and Genealogy Information
Until Freedom Comes Exhibit
Passport Processing Center
Creative Corner Makerspace
One-on-One Device Training Sessions
Research Assistance
Youth Services: storytimes, youth programs, creative space for school-age children
Youth iPad Kiosks and Computers
Reading nook for preschoolers and parents and children and young adult materials collections
Reading collections for adults
Programs for Adults
Copy, Scan & Fax Station
Document Translation Service
Computer Lab
Printing
WiFi Public Internet Access
Self-checkout Kiosks
COS Site Business Center (formerly SNAP site)

Branch History

The Main Street Library owes its beginnings to the Woman’s Club of Hilton Village. Beginning
in the mid-1930s, the women of the club collected enough money and books to open up a lending
library in a basement room of Hilton Elementary School. Up until the mid-1950s the Warwick County
Library, as it was called at the time, received no government funding and instead operated on donations
and staffed by volunteers. In 1954, again with fundraising help from the Woman’s Club of Hilton Village,
the library’s first permanent location was built just off Warwick Blvd. behind the Hilton Village Firehouse.
This building was expanded in 1964. When the City of Newport News and the City of Warwick consolidated in 1958, the library’s name was changed to the Main Street Library. The library’s current building opened to the public in February 1996.

1996: The Virginiana Collection moved to Main Street from the West Avenue Library.

2005: Local physician Dr. Herbert H. Neisser bequeaths Main Street Library about $2 million.

The library’s meeting room is named in honor of local philanthropist Adele McLaughlin Blair, and the computer lab is named in honor of former librarian Pat Anderson.