Blanchard House Museum African American Research Library

For over 10 years, Cooper Street Recreation Center and the Blanchard House Museum have partnered to create the Blanchard House Museum Research Library. The books used for research to create each year’s new museum exhibits are donated to the Library. The Blanchard House Museum Research Library also serves as a Creative Writing Center overseen by former principal, Ms. Eunice Wiley. The Creative Writing Center was created to cultivate the creative writing skills of youth, allowing them to confidently communicate their thoughts and feeling through the written word. 

Ms. Wiley will be providing writing classes to teens to have them develop their creative writing skills and write their college application essays. We also have a retired librarian who will be helping us re-catalog all the books in the research library.

Port Charlotte Library’s Youth Librarian is coming in once a month with the younger children during the afternoon program with the YMCA. We have plans to work with the Port Charlotte Library to provide college prep and financial aid workshops for teens and their families in the future.