Walton-DeFuniak Library

The Walton-DeFuniak Library opened during the first decade of DeFuniak Springs, a community that began in the early 1880's as a station on the new Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad and was named for Frederick de Funiak, president of the P. and A. Railroad, a subsidiary of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Railroad officials encouraged development of the area's recreational resources, and in the mid-1880's representatives of the popular Chautauqua association, an adult education movement combining education with religion and recreation, selected DeFuniak Springs as the site of the Florida assembly grounds. In 1885, the first annual session of the Florida Chautauqua Association was held there. Local women recognized the need for library resources for the Florida Chautauqua, formed an Aid Society in 1886, and reorganized it as the Ladies Library Association the next year. By the end of 1887, the DeFuniak Library building was completed. The institution became the Walton County Public Library in 1966 and was named the Walton-DeFuniak Library in 1975, when the building was the oldest structure in Florida built as a library and still serving that purpose.

DeFuniak Springs, Florida · United States