The community building on Lincoln Square was once home to the Beatty-Bibb Post 171 of the American Legion, according to published accounts in the History of Lincoln.
The American Legion Post, formed in 1926, began in 1933 to work on securing a permanent home for the post. A building committee of Stirman Karnes, Charlie Moore, Homer Snodgrass Sr., Bryan Hilton and C.W. Trewhit obtained a Works Progress Administration project and secured a 99-year lease from the city to build. The project was completed in 1934.
A fundraising effort for the building was undertaken and a decade later, on March 20, 1944, the Post and Auxiliary held a "note burning," signifying the indebtedness for the building had been paid in full.
The Post was originally named the Beatty American Legion Post 171, in honor of Hagan R. Beatty, the first Lincoln soldier killed in World War I. The Post in 1947, renamed the post to Beatty-Bibb Post 171 in honor of the U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Troy M. Bibb, also of Lincoln, who died in 1942.
The building for decades housed the American Legion Post until the post moved just off the square building into a new modern building.
The former American Legion Post has been home to Kiwanis Club meetings, Boy Scout and Girl Scout meetings, the Lincoln Rodeo Club dances, community street dances, family reunion gatherings, Christmas on the Square activities and the Apple Festival activities.