E. Y. Chapin Library

The first public library in Boone County was - and is - Petersburg's Chapin Library. It's privately owned, but open to the public.

It's in a special addition to the back of the Petersburg Christian Church, and was begun in 1949, and endowed, by one time Petersburg resident E. Y. Chapin.

Born in Petersburg, Chapin studied law in the offices of Covington's John G. Carlisle, and later moved to Tennessee, where he made
his fortune,
as a bank president who also had interests in a furniture factory, in a hosiery mill and a stove works.

He loved to read, and he remembered the town where he grew up in a memorable fashion. He also endowed libraries in Tennessee, and a scholarship at the University of Cincinnati Law School.

The 1930 Boone County Recorder's Historical Edition had these words on Mr. Chapin.  We promise you, it is *not* the honorific you would ordinarily anticipate!

A large number of the Petersburg images on the Northern Kentucky Views site are used here by their permission, and we appreciate their kindness, and generosity.