Rosa Tarbutton Memorial Library
The Rosa M. Tarbutton Memorial Library in Sandersville is part of the Oconee Regional Library System and serves all of Washington County.
Rosa McMaster Tarbutton (1899-1986) promoted library service in Washington County for many years through her work in the Transylvania Club. She was a leader in getting Wedgwood to agree to manufacture the Georgia historical plates, the proceeds of which supported the Sandersville Public Library from 1933 to 1998.
The Oconee Regional Library, one of 57 library systems in Georgia under the University System Board of Regents,is headquartered in Dublin at the Laurens County Library from which it serves a combined population of more than 83,000 people in Washington, Johnson, Laurens and Treutlen counties across 2,011 square miles.
The Georgia General Assembly House Resolution 35 honored Washington County's Transylvania Club for its years of service to the community and the Library.
The Transylvania Club of Sandersville was organized on October 23, 1908, at which time the 18 charter members of the club chose as their motto: "Service, not for ourselves, but for others." At the January 1909 meeting, Mary Tarbutton, the first president of the club, suggested that the club adopt as its project the establishment of a public library and the membership wholeheartedly agreed. The club, through silver teas, musicals, home talent plays and ice cream festivals, raised the funds for the library which opened in the majestic Greek-temple styled Masonic Building on the town square in Sandersville on May 12, 1909, with Mary Bangs Tarbutton as its first librarian;
Through the hard work of the club and the benevolence of the friends of the library, the library expanded to a collection of more than 7,000 volumes by 1921. A tragic fire on Feb. 1, 1921, engulfed and destroyed the Masonic Building and the library, but the club was not deterred by the loss and resolved to begin anew and the library reopened the following Tuesday in the home of Mary Tarbutton with 15 volumes after members agreed to contribute $1 each toward the purchase of new books and pledged to rebuild the library.
Through public solicitation, flea markets, and bake sales, the club raised sufficient funds by June 1925 to purchase a building on the city square to house the Sandersville Public Library where the library stayed until it merged with the Washington County Library to form the Rosa M. Tarbutton Memorial Library in January 1998I
In December 1932, the club, at the suggestion of Louise Irwin, adopted the project of creating a series of historical plates to commemorate the bicentennial of Georgia and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the club with the first delivery of the Georgia Historical Plates by Wedgwood in September 1935. In February 1974, Gov. Jimmy Carter signed a resolution of the General Assembly designating the plates as the official historical plates of the State of Georgia. The sale of these plates has been a major funding source for the Sandersville Public Library with thousands of the plates being sold since the Sandersville Public Library merged with the Washington County Library in 1998 to form the Rosa M. Tarbutton Memorial Library, the club has continued to generously support public library services in Sandersville and Washington County with donations in excess of $300,000 to the Rosa M. Tarbutton Memorial Library.
