The Ashe County Public Library was founded in 1932 by the Ashe County Women's Club and opened with 500 books in the collection.
In 1962, the Ashe Library joined with the Wilkes and Watauga Libraries to form the Appalachian Regional Library.
In 1977, the doors opened on the new, dedicated building where the library is still housed today, after two major expansions (the last completed in 2009) which more than tripled the original square footage.