Mission, Hidalgo County
Mission women formed the Tuesday Club in 1910 and four years later organized the Civic League of Mission to care for a city park and start a library. The library occupied a shelf in an empty store and moved between temporary sites. The Mission city council passed an ordinance to establish a library in 1929. The public and school libraries merged from 1935-47 before the city had its first permanent location on 11th Street in 1948. In 1974, Juanita Speer Farley and her husband, Hal, donated a new site to honor her parents, early settlers George and Lyda Speer, and the library was renamed in their memory. Support of the Junior Service League and Friends of the Library have made the library a key public service for more than a century. (2014)