Rosemary Galdiano was about 10 years old when the Seminary South Library building opened down the street in 1967.
The library quickly became a third space for her — an escape from the bustle of her parents’ small Worth Heights home, which she shared with five siblings. For Galdiano, the library’s walkable distance was key in feeding her curiosity.
“I started just exploring the bookshelves,” Galdiano said. “I found history related to Texas that wasn’t taught in school, so that opened my eyes and a whole other world for me.”
In the library’s 55 years of operating, it left a lasting impression on Galdiano and her community in south Fort Worth, she said.
So when the city announced the branch closing in 2022 — to make space for the city’s history center after the sale of Fort Worth’s Central Library location — she said she was appalled.
Now, after four years of advocacy from Galdiano and others, the library is slated to reopen. On May 2, Fort Worth residents approved a $14.6 million bond proposition funding improvements to libraries citywide.
About $2.2 million of that proposition will relocate the history center to the former City Hall building in downtown. Public information officer Theresa Davis told the Report in April that reopening the library as part of the bond was in response to residents’ requests.
“We heard you,” Galdiano recalled City Manager Jay Chapa telling her community at a public meeting.
“That was refreshing to hear,” Galdiano said.
The Seminary South Library primarily served the majority Hispanic communities surrounding Worth Heights, such as Rosemont and South Hills, as well as southside neighborhoods like Ryan Place, where Galdiano now lives.
The library’s closure left a gap in library services for the southern portion of Fort Worth’s urban core, said Vicki Bargas, president of the Worth Heights neighborhood association.
Bargas said she was ecstatic when she heard about the library’s reopening. In the lead up to the bond election, she helped mobilize community members to approve the library proposal.
“We just never really fully understood the reasoning behind (the closure),” Bargas said. “Of course, (the city) said it was underutilized, but never presented any data to that effect. We were really blindsided when it happened.”
Adding to the confusion was the fact that the Seminary South Library building was only large enough to accommodate a part of the history center, Bargas said. Since the relocation, Fort Worth has stored many of its local history documents — like genealogies and old newspaper records — in a warehouse. Residents have to order something to have access, staff said at a March 31 work session.
Bargas, who was about 16 when the library opened, used it throughout her life and often saw teachers and their students from nearby elementary schools visiting, she said. After Seminary South closed, Worth Heights’ closest public library was the Wedgwood Library, 5 miles away.
“It’s still a huge drive,” Galdiano said. “My being able as a child to walk from my house to the library, it was liberating.”
She said that over her career in public health — which led to her being director of Texas Health Resources’ mobile health program — she’s come to understand the throughline between accessible education and preventing poverty. Not having easy access to a library could negatively affect the area’s low-income families for generations, Galdiano said.
The city attempted to fill the gap left by the Seminary South Library by opening a library in La Gran Plaza, a mall across the street from the Seminary South location.
But the small library in the mall has not met the needs of the community, Galdiano and Bargas said. The mall is often crowded with visitors from all over the metroplex, and the library carries books geared more toward children.
A person walks by mannequins dressed in Western wear inside El Mercado in La Gran Plaza, 4200 South Freeway, in Fort Worth on Aug. 23, 2023. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
“It’s not really a place that youth, college-level and adult learners can really go to and use the library space the way a library space is expected to function,” Galdiano said.
Davis, the spokesperson, said the needs of the La Gran Plaza location will be reevaluated moving forward.
She said it’s too early to commit to a specific timeline to reopen the library, as “any relocation is pending final renovations of former City Hall … and then the coordination of transitioning the city archives.”
The library bond package will also fund the modernization of the Southwest Regional Library, which was built in 1987 near the Overton Park and Tanglewood neighborhoods. The Diamond Hill/Jarvis Library, which opened in 1989, will see similar renovations.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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