was hosted in the Montrose Street home of Mrs. Payson Pierce, with the collection of books open to the town on Saturday afternoons. The Clermont Library Club also hosted their meetings at Mrs. Pierce's house with her permission. The books were moved to Isiah Benson's Lake Avenue house in 1910 and to the Baptist Church the following year due to the increase in library items but lack of shelving space. Prior to this, residents paid 50 cents a year for their patronage which helped pay the dues to those that hosted the library. In the summer of 1914, the Friends of the Library fundraised for $600 to erect a one-room building on 630 DeSoto Street, a lot donated by Alice Cooper. The library was funded by the club and its small circulating collection staffed by Clermont Women's Club volunteers until the city took over in the 1950s and the Cooper Memorial Library Association was formed to administer the public library. In 1980, a former bank building was purchased, and to transfer the books from one location to another, a human chain of town volunteers was made between both locations. The books were passed "hand by hand via a people chain" across the empty lots to their new home. Mike Delaney, a Friends of the Library member, reflected on this event: "It was an amazing honor to be part of the early book brigade when I was seven ... it was an experience that I will never forget that brought the community together". In 1984, the building was expanded by more than 4,000 square feet, adding the Florida Room and Children's Room. In 1982, the Cooper Memorial Library joined the Lake County Library System, and is the only continuous member of that system. The Cooper Memorial Library in Clermont is staffed by the Lake-Sumter State College and the Lake County Library System. Places Downtown Clermont has restaurants, shops, the local Art League, Clermont City Center, and City Hall. The downtown's western area, known as Historic Village, includes sites such as the Townsend House, home to James and Sallie Townsend, the first African-American couple in Clermont. The building known as "Little Cooper" was moved to the Clermont Historic Village in 2009 and restored to be opened as a museum of local and world history. The Historic Village is maintained by the South Lake County Historical Society and the City of Clermont. South