Our History

A historical image of the Old Town Hall building, in which the library lived from 1869 to 2024. Image via the Delaware Public Archives.

The original Smyrna library was founded by a small group of Smyrna residents in 1858 as a subscription library, originally located in Odd Fellows Hall at 34 South Main Street. Later, shares were sold to investors who wanted to ensure that a library was an integral part of Smyrna’s fabric. For a long time, the Town of Smyrna was responsible for the library; however, it became a labor of love in the 1940s for certain dedicated citizens who created a Board of Directors, oversaw the daily operations, and volunteered to run it.

The previous building shared by the library, located at 22 South Main Street, was built in 1869-70 to house a town hall, police station, fire department, library, and auditorium (the Opera House). It continued to house all these functions throughout the remainder of the 19th century and into the mid-20th century.

Odd Fellows Hall, the site of the original 1858 Library, as it appears today. Image via the Smyrna Downtown Renaissance Association.

For more than a quarter of a century (from c. 1945 until her death), Louise Denney Clifton, a local real estate agent, volunteered as the main librarian. In 1948, a Christmas Eve fire destroyed the third floor and bell tower, and very nearly burned the entire city block. After the fire, all the surviving books were taken to her office to dry out, and it became the de facto library’s location until enough remediation had been done to the fire-damaged building to allow the library to move back in. During the 1980s, the Town of Smyrna acquired the Smyrna Public Library from the governing Board of Friends and funded it until 2024. The Town’s support enabled the library to stay open six days a week and hire a full-time library director. Then, as now, volunteers were central to running the library. The building remained a two-storied survivor, housing all the civic offices that were a part of the original. In time, the Town outgrew the building and created an independent police station/jail, Town Hall, and fire department. Only the library remained, and it expanded to fill the first-floor areas vacated by the others.

When the Smyrna-Clayton Heritage Association was formed in 1998, it had the stated purpose of restoring and reopening the Smyrna Opera House. As the Opera House was rebuilt, part of the project included digging out the dirt cellar and creating storage and meeting rooms in the basement, which doubled the size of the library from 2,500 square feet to 4,900 square feet. The task was completed in 2003 when the Smyrna Opera House reopened and remains an active and central part of the Smyrna community to this day.

Eventually, the library outgrew the small building attached to the Opera House, and the Smyrna population continued to grow exponentially. The Town of Smyrna commissioned a Needs Assessment in 2007 to evaluate the library and determine the optimal size to service projected populations over the next several decades. As a result of this study, the Town of Smyrna asked a group of citizens to form a new committee to act on the recommendations of the Needs Assessment. This committee eventually developed into the Smyrna Public Library Guild, which is now named the Friends of the Duck Creek Regional Library.

The front door and sign of the Smyrna Public Library as it appeared in 2025, immediately before the staff migrated to the new Duck Creek Regional Library building. Image via the Delaware News Journal.

The all-volunteer Friends group’s stated intent has always been “…to improve library services in the Smyrna- Clayton region…by building a much-needed, expanded and modern library for our citizens.” Until the new library building was completed in 2025, the Friends board of directors’ meetings and resources focused entirely on the building of a new regional state-of-the-art library for Smyrna and the surrounding communities, as well as implementing a state-approved method of governance.

Once the new Duck Creek Regional Library was erected, furnished, and stocked, the Friends transferred the management and funding of the library to a Governance Board created for that purpose. The Friends of the Duck Creek Regional Library is now dedicated, as most Friends groups are, to raising money and volunteering time for the benefit and operations of the new library.