Twelve members of the Just Us Girls Club organized the Potter County free library in 1902. First occupying a donated house, the library moved to the old post office, a fire station, and city hall before this structure was built. The library occupies the southwest corner of the courthouse square. With a hint of the Prairie Style, the building of tan pressed brick and stone trim is typical of early-twentieth-century library design. Here, a symmetrical, T-shaped plan is elevated above a partially depressed basement containing an auditorium, a space that also was used as a lounge by women and children in town for shopping.
Surrounding commercial buildings contributed to the civic dignity of the courthouse square area, exemplified by the two-and-a-half-story Insurance Building (1926, W. R. Kaufman, with Kerr and Walsh) at 210 SE 6th Avenue, with its dark red tapestry brick facade enhanced by cast-stone trim and terra-cotta ornament.