The Long Beach Public Library traces it beginning to 1895 when a library was named for Mrs. Garland Ferguson, who donated 250 books to help start it.
However, the Big Fire of Long Beach, New Year's Eve 1923, destroyed the building.

The Old Vegetable Packing Shed (where now stands the Hancock Bank), which was part of the early history of Long Beach, was the scene of the next effort toward a town library. Part-time workers served as librarians, and packing crates served as book shelves. Books were collected through book showers and door to door campaigns. The old packing shed burned, and with its destruction a period followed in which there was no library.

In 1939, concerned citizens of this then-small community of a few hundred families circulated a petition to raise funds for a town library. Thirty-seven determined citizens organized the library and named Mrs. Stella S. Buckles as librarian.

The old Hancock Bank building on Jeff Davis Avenue became the library headquarters. An organizational meeting of the Long Beach Library Association was held October 2, 1939 in the old Hancock Bank building. The library was immediately opened without funds and very few books. By February, 1940, records show the library contained 626 books. By September of that year, the infant library boasted books in excess of 1000 volumes.