History of the
Fern Creek Library
Fern Creek has a history of library service dating back to 1937. Starting as a community-run library, with books donated from the Louisville Free Public Library and staffed by Fern Creek Woman’s Club members, Fern Creek officially joined the Louisville Free Public Library system in 1963. Fern Creek’s most recent library closed in June 2019 as part of several Louisville Metro Government budget reductions.
One of the fastest-growing parts of town, Fern Creek is a library desert. The citizens in the Fern Creek neighborhood are determined to bring the library back and have tirelessly advocated for their own library. With the completion of this project, the Fern Creek Library will have a freestanding building for the first time in its 86-year history.
Upon its projected reopening in 2026, Louisville Free Public Library estimates an annual 130,000 visits to the Fern Creek Library, making it a vibrant hub of learning, exploration, and community connections.
(Source: Louisville Free Public Library Foundation)
Several iterations of the Fern Creek Library called the Fern Creek Community Center home through the years.
The Fern Creek Community center building housed several iterations of the Fern Creek Library, both public and community, On June 24,1957, the Fern Creek Community Library opened for six hours per week in the “library room” of the Fern Creek Community Center which was staffed by volunteers and managed by the Fern Creek Community Club with help from the Fern Creek Woman’s Club. It boasted a collection of approximately “500 books (250 from the Louisville Free Public Library bookmobile and the rest were gifts from interested people in the community,” according the Fern Creek Woman’s Club Lore & Legacy book.
The first community library merged into a branch of the Louisville Free Public Library in the building in 1964. This first public branch closed in November, 1986 after government budget cuts.
A second Fern Creek Community Library reopened in1987, led by the volunteer Fern Creek Library Board. The 650-square-foot library room this time boasted a collection of 10,000 books. The Fern Creek Library left the Community Center in 1993 when the second branch of the Fern Creek Public Library opened in Fern Creek Square Shopping Center.
When the Fern Creek Public Library closed in 2019 (again due to city budget cuts), the Friends of the Fern Creek Library hosted monthly Fern Creek Library Community Days in the Community Center until that effort was shut down by the covid pandemic.
Source: Program for the 70th Anniversary Rededication Ceremony and Open House for the Fern Creek Community Center, August 6, 2025. By Brian G. Miller
History of Friends of the Fern Creek Library
Improving access to books and educational programs at the Fern Creek Library.
The Friends of the Fern Creek Library started not long after the Fern Creek Library joined the Louisville Free Public Library in 1963. (Fern Creek had a library in one place or another begining in 1937.)
The Friends of the Fern Creek Library has played an important role in supporting our community library through the years. The group has been very active in the effort to bring a new library back to Fern Creek since the branch was closed in 2019.
Help us gather the history of the Fern Creek Library! Do you have memories of coming to one of the various Fern Creek Library locations? Share your story and old photos with us today.
Thank you!
Friends of the Fern Creek Library
Friends of the
Fern Creek Library
Get involved with the Friends of the Fern Creek Library today to help us support the new Fern Creek Library that will open in fall 2026.
