County leaders joined the Gwinnett County Public Library Board of Trustees, Lawrenceville officials, and the Hooper-Renwick Legacy Preservation Committee recently to break ground on the Hooper-Renwick Themed Library. The new library branch will preserve the site of what was for decades Gwinnett’s only Afri­can American public school.

The projected $7.6 million project, funded by the 2017 SPLOST program and nearly $1.7 million from the city, will incorporate the existing 11,400-square-foot school build­ing into the 25,000-square-foot library. The new library will preserve architectural design elements and honor the leg­acy of the former Hooper-Renwick School through exhibits about the school's history.