Cheraw Lyceum

The first library in Chesterfield County was organized around 1800 in the town of Chatham, as Cheraw was known until 1821. There is no record of what happened to this first library, but in 1855 the Cheraw Lyceum was organized and immediately began to collect books for a library. The library was reestablished after the Civil War, but with money for neither books nor personnel it faded away. In 1923 with the permission of the last officers of the Cheraw Lyceum, the books from the Civic League Hall were transferred to the Lyceum building. The Lyceum building was a charming little red brick building erected between the years of 1824-34. The Lyceum contains exhibits depicting Cheraw's history. The building was built as a chancery court, but was used over the years as the Lyceum meeting room, library, the 1st telegraph office and both confederate and Union quartermasters off ice. Items are from the steamboat era, the Confederate War, Dizzy Gillespie and the Cheraw Indians.