King Library

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The King Library is open to the public. Members are able to browse and borrow material or continue to schedule curbside pickup appointments. We ask for visits to be limited to one hour to help allow social distancing for all to enjoy the library. Face masks are required indoors for all members and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

The Society of the Four Arts Gioconda and Joseph King Library houses more than 75,000 books, audiobooks, DVDs and periodicals. Frequent book discussions, author talks, teen and adult programs are presented regularly. In 2018, the library received a stunning, award-winning restoration that enhanced the experience for all visitors. The King Library serves the Town of Palm Beach but is open to library members from all over.

King Library Hours
Monday – Friday
10am – 4:45 pm

101 Four Arts Plaza
Palm Beach, FL 33480
(561) 655-2766
kinglibrary@fourarts.org

Online Resources

King Library members have access to e-books, audiobooks and magazines through the Libby, by Overdrive app. Read or listen on your mobile device, tablet, e-reader, or desktop. Access to over 12,000 newspapers and news resources are available through Newsbank World News.

For video tutorials on how to use our online resources, click here.

E-Books and Audiobooks

  • Download the Libby, by Overdrive app for your device
  • Open the app and find Society of the Four Arts King Library
  • Enter your King Library Card Number
  • Browse through the selections and follow the instructions to download to your bookshelf or request to place a hold for when the title becomes available

Newspapers

  • Visit Newsbank World News
  • Enter your library card number and gain access to local (Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News), national, and international news sources.

Note: A library membership is necessary to access online materials. Please call (561) 655-2766 or email kinglibrary@fourarts.org for help getting started or to retrieve your library card number.

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PROGRAMS

The Gioconda and Joseph King Library hosts Book Discussions throughout the year. Discussions are open to the public with advance reservations – all we ask is that you have an understanding of the assigned reading and a willingness to engage in active debates and enlightening conversation.

Our celebrated Florida Voices series offers you the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialog with celebrated Florida authors. Page Turners is a book discussion group where participants explore new titles and modern works of fiction. Delve into some of the most captivating books of history and culture, with the Talk of Kings series.

Exciting Teen Programs are open to ages 12-18, and Adult Programs are featured throughout the year.

View Programs

Online Book Discussions
For a complete list of previously recorded King Library book discussions, please visit the King Library catalog.

Membership

The King Library is open for all to join. A yearly membership is $25 for Town of Palm Beach residents and $30 for all others. New members may join any time throughout the year. King Library members may borrow from our ever-expanding collection of books, DVDs, and audiobooks, plus access to thousands of downloadable e-books and audiobooks available online. While in the library, members have complimentary access to laptops.

Borrowing Policies
Books & Audiobooks | 3 weeks
DVDs & Blu-rays | 1 week
Kindles | 3 weeks (no renewals)

Up to three renewals are allowed on all materials except Kindles as long as there are no existing holds on the item(s).

Join the King Library

Craft Kits

Now available at the King Library, our Craft Kits let you try out a new craft without buying tools or supplies before you know if it’s for you! Each kit contains helpful instructions, basic tools, and enough supplies for practice or a small project. Kits include paper quilling, coloring, embroidery, book binding, and crocheting, The kits are available to borrow for three weeks. You keep your craft and return the supplies and tools back to the library. To reserve a kit, email kinglibrary@fourarts.org, call (561) 655-2766, or reserve one through our online catalog with your library card.

You can find all our craft kits in our online catalog, by searching keyword “crafting kit.”

History of the King Library

Inspired by aspiration, curiosity and passion for the beauty of the world, in the early 1930s three Palm Beach women set out to create something extraordinary. An announcement signed by Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Mrs. Lorenzo E. Woodhouse and Mrs. Frederick Johnson stated that a group of citizens had decided to form an organization to promote the appreciation of art, music, drama and literature. Mrs. Elliott was a Pulitzer Prize winning author who already had found success cultivating the appreciation of the arts in 1912 as a founding member of the Newport Artists Society. She, along with Mrs. Woodhouse and Mrs. Johnson (who were well-known artists in their own right), began the task of recruiting others to their cause, now known as The Society of the Four Arts.

To heed Mrs. Elliott’s cry for a home for the Four Arts, funds were soon raised to buy the land and erect a building (the present library) on Four Arts Plaza. Maurice Fatio and his architectural firm of Treanor and Fatio donated their services, creating a beautiful Mediterranean revival-style building with gracious archways, galleries with high ceilings and authentic pecky cypress details.

The Four Arts moved into this new building on January 8, 1938, and art exhibits, poetry readings, lectures and musical events began to take place. Passionate about literature, Mrs. Elliott made plans to start a reading room and library. Then Four Arts President Dr. Daniel J. McCarthy appointed Mrs. Elliott chairman of the committee to establish a library in Palm Beach.

On February 10, 1940, a ceremony was held opening the Library on the second floor of the building and dedicating the beautiful portrait of Mrs. Elliott, commissioned by Mrs. Woodhouse and painted by Adele Herter. This portrait now hangs behind the front desk of the Library.

The Library quickly became the center for the many cultural, civic and philanthropic events. At the invitation of Mrs. Elliott, groups of interested people met in the Library for poetry readings. At one such meeting, Mrs. Elliott related anecdotes of her friendship and visits with Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Four Arts Library established a completely separate children’s department and hired a professional children’s librarian in 1956. The Children’s Library later moved across the street to its present location in the Rovensky Administration Building. In 1997 the library received a generous donation from Gioconda and Joseph King, and the name of the library was changed to recognize this splendid gift.

In 2018, after eight decades, the beloved library received a dramatic restoration that enhanced the experience for all visitors to come.

Today, the Four Arts King Library house more than 75,000 books, audiobooks, DVDs and periodicals. A touch-screen tablet is available to help visitors browse the collection of digital books and media. Frequent book discussions, play readings and author talks attract standing-room-only crowds, and innovative teen programming is bringing in a new generation of library patrons.

The story of the King Library is one of community, enlightenment and pride.

In addition to its outstanding circulating collections the King Library maintains a Rare Book and Special Collections Room. A brief description of these historic materials and access guidelines is available here.

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