Beginning in 1937, Ambassador and Mrs. David K.E. Bruce anonymously funded 11 library sites in Southside Virginia. Known as the Bruce libraries, they became the first public libraries to allow access to African Americans, although African Americans were limited to side or back doors and did not have full access to the collections. Even with those restrictions, the libraries marked an advance in access to library materials for African Americans. The Charlotte County Library, originally built in 1830 as the Hager-Marshall House, was purchased by the Bruces and adapted as a library, making it the only Bruce library to use an existing building. It was the first library in Virginia funded by the Bruce's library fund. The other Bruce libraries were built on similar colonial-style plans drawn by an architect for the Bruces, with large reading rooms across the front, an office for the librarian, a meeting room for African Americans at the back, and restrooms and storage areas. The Charlotte County Library held separate opening ceremonies one day apart for white and African American patrons, and Miss Mary Barksdale was its first librarian.