Handley Regional Library

Specialties

Local residents can check out books for adults & children, DVDs, audiobooks, & download audiobooks. We have a great local history & genealogy section. There are programs for children and adults.

The Handley Library in Winchester, a beautiful 1913 Beaux Arts building, is the orginal library in the system. The Bowman Library is in Stephens City and the Clarke County Library is in Berryville.

Library cards are free to local residents and to residents of nearby Virginia public libraries with which the library has reciprocal agreements. Free use of the Internet. Visitors to the area may have single-​use access to computers with photo i.d.

History

Established in 1913.

Judge John Handley of Scranton, Pennsylvania left $ 250,000 in his will to “. .. open a Public Library for the free use of the people of the city of Winchester forever.” The Handley Trustees hired architects J. Stewart Barney and Henry Otis Chapman of New York who designed the building in Beaux-​Arts style. The Handley Library opened in 1913 at a cost of $ 233,230.28 for the building and furnishings. An addition was added to the building in 1979 and a complete renovation, designed by Dennis Kowal Architects, was completed in 2001.

In 1979 the library became a regional library when Frederick County and then Clarke County joined the system. The Mary Jane & James L. Bowman Library opened in July 2001. In April 2009, the Clarke County Library moved into a new space in the Berryville-​Clarke County joint office building in Berryville.

Meet the Manager

John H.

Manager

John took over the Direction of the Handley Regional Library System from the previous director in September of 2013. John’s focus in the near future will be to remove barriers between what HRL has for our customers and the customers themselves.

John is also looking to expand the role of technology at HRL and to update the wonderful collection to suit this modern era.