The Smithfield Branch Library first opened in 1918 as the Booker T. Washington Library. It was one of the state’s first libraries for black Alabamians. The branch library was located in three leased rooms of the Masonic Temple Building at 4th Avenue North and 17th Street . It was not until 1956 that the first Smithfield Library Branch building was dedicated. It holds an important place in the city’s history, being the first building specifically built to hold a library for black residents of Birmingham.