Showing 1 - 20 of 33 results

Ballard Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Ballard's public library has evolved from a reading room established more than a century ago to an important resource expressing the heritage and diversity of the community today. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) helped build Ballard's first real library when Ballard was its own town and not yet a Seattle neighborhood. This library served readers for 59 years before being replaced in 1963 by a new building. In 2005 that structure, in turn, was replaced by a state-of-the-art facility financed by the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond issue. The new Ballard Branch, located at 5614 22nd Avenue NW, opened in May 2005.
File 3878: Full Text >

Beacon Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Beacon Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library, is located on Seattle's Beacon Hill at 2821 Beacon Avenue S in a building financed by the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond issue. The branch opened in 1945 in a small storefront at 2708 Beacon Avenue S on a trial basis, with community-group members contributing time and money to make the branch possible. Beacon Hill became a full-fledged branch in 1947, and in 1962 moved into a converted retail store at 2519 15th Avenue S. Six years later a fire in the abutting building nearly destroyed the branch, but it was saved by heavy rain and occupied the storefront space for more than 40 years in all. The current building, designed by Carlson Architects, opened on July 10, 2004. It is three times the size of the previous one and includes special collections in Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, and Tagalog, reflecting some of the cultural diversity of the Beacon Hill neighborhood that it serves.
File 2867: Full Text >

Broadview Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Broadview Branch, The Seattle Public Library, located at 12755 Greenwood Avenue N, began as one room in a portable classroom and has served northwest Seattle in one form or another since 1944. Broadview's history is distinguished by strong community support, which not only raised money and purchased and cleared land, but also staged protests to insure that readers had the library services they deserved.
File 4022: Full Text >

Capitol Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Capitol Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library, opened at 425 Harvard Avenue E on May 31, 2003. The site was formerly home to the Susan J. Henry Branch, The Seattle Public Library. The Henry Branch served the Capitol Hill community from 1954 until November 2001, when it was demolished to make way for the new facility. Library services in the Capitol Hill neighborhood have developed over nearly a century from a tiny deposit station in the Mission Pharmacy to the $5.7 million Capitol Hill Branch. The Capitol Hill Branch was funded by the $196.4 million "Libraries For All" bond issue approved by Seattle voters in 1998. "Libraries For All" provided for replacement or renovation of existing branches, several new branches, and a new main library.
File 8174: Full Text >

Central Library, 1906-1957, The Seattle Public Library

Since 1906, the city block bordered by 4th and 5th avenues and Madison and Spring streets in the heart of downtown Seattle has been the site of a succession of three completely different buildings housing the Central Branch of The Seattle Public Library. The first, an imposing Classical Revival style structure partially clad in Tenino sandstone, was constructed using funds donated by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and served Seattle's reading public for roughly the first half of the twentieth century.
File 9869: Full Text >

Central Library, 1960-2001, The Seattle Public Library

For more than 40 years, The Seattle Public Library's Central Library at 4th Avenue and Spring Street served as the city's largest branch and as system headquarters. The building with its International Style design opened in 1960 to replace the library's previous Beaux Arts style structure. It fit with other buildings going up downtown at the time such as the Municipal Building (1959) and the Norton Building (1959). The new library offered room for the various collections, staff offices, a bindery, meeting rooms, and classrooms.
File 4157: Full Text >

Central Library, 2002-present, The Seattle Public Library

The new Central Library of The Seattle Public Library opened in May 2004 in a startlingly unique and widely praised steel-and-glass building designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It boasts the most advanced library technology in the nation, and is being called the "first library of the twenty-first century" (The New Yorker, May 24, 2004). The new library was built after Seattle voters approved the "Libraries For All" bond issue on November 3, 1998.
File 4303: Full Text >

Columbia Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Columbia Branch, The Seattle Public Library, is located at 4721 Rainier Avenue S adjacent to Columbia Park at the north end of the Columbia City business district in southeast Seattle. The branch's landmark 1915 building is the smallest of the libraries built for Seattle with gifts from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). The branch itself dates to 1909, two years after Columbia City was annexed into Seattle, when a small branch was opened in Spartan surroundings in the old Columbia City town hall. Since the branch's inception in 1909, it has seen dramatic changes in a neighborhood that has always attracted immigrant groups from Italians to Asians to Pacific Islanders. Under the "Libraries for All" improvement program, a $196.4 million bond issue passed by Seattle voters in 1998, the building was expanded to double its size. It closed for a year for renovation, reopening in August 2004. The expanded and renovated library preserves the building's distinctive character as a landmark.
File 4057: Full Text >

Delridge Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Delridge Branch, The Seattle Public Library, located in West Seattle at 5423 Delridge Way SW, was the third branch to open under the "Libraries for All" building program, a $196.4 million bond measure passed by Seattle voters in November 1998. The new branch opened on June 29, 2002, and replaced a small self-service library located in the Southwest Youth and Family Services Center. The branch helps provide a center for a very diverse neighborhood and it anchors the first floor of a three-story building that includes 19 apartments for lower-income residents. The $3 million building was constructed in partnership with the Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association.
File 8769: Full Text >

Douglass-Truth Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Douglass-Truth Branch Library is the home of the largest collection of African American literature and history on the West Coast. Originally named after pioneer and library patron Henry Yesler (1810-1892), the branch has witnessed wide changes in the community it serves. The Central Area has been home to many Jews, Japanese Americans, and finally African Americans. On October 14, 2006, after a two-year closure for construction, an expanded and remodeled Douglass-Truth Branch reopened.
File 4056: Full Text >

Fremont Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Seattle's first branch library was opened on February 2, 1903, in Fremont. The branch was an outgrowth of a privately funded free reading room upstairs in a drug store. The 1921 branch library building was a gift from Andrew Carnegie and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004 the library was closed for a major renovation completed as part of "Libraries For All," a $196.4 million bond issue passed by Seattle voters in 1998. The renovated library reopened in April 2005.
File 3967: Full Text >

Green Lake Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood opened a reading room in August 1905. The community quickly outgrew the little library's capacity. In 1908, a group of 40 Green Lake business and community leaders spearheaded a drive to purchase land upon which a larger library could be built. This new library, financed by community members and in part by Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), opened in 1910. By 1999, the Green Lake Branch of The Seattle Public Library had 54,000 catalogued items and quick access to every catalogued item in the Seattle library system through its upgraded, on-line system. In the early twenty-first century, the Green Lake Branch was extensively renovated as part of "Libraries For All," a $196.4 million bond issue passed by Seattle voters in 1998. The branch was closed for more than a year for the renovation, and reopened amidst great celebration in March 2004.
File 1663: Full Text >

Greenwood Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Greenwood Branch, The Seattle Public Library, opened in 1928 as a direct result of the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge communities coming together for a common purpose. The original rented storefront was expanded twice to accommodate readers. In 1954, the neighborhood got its own branch at 8016 Greenwood Avenue N. The library continued through the rest of the twentieth century as a focal point for the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods. The 1954 building closed in November 2003 for the construction of a new and greatly expanded building. The new Greenwood Branch opened in January 2005.
File 3980: Full Text >

Henry Branch, The Seattle Public Library, and its Neighborhood

The Susan J. Henry Branch, The Seattle Public Library, was located at 425 Harvard Avenue E on Seattle's Capitol Hill. Opened on August 26, 1954, the Henry Library was named for Susan J. Henry (1854-1921), wife of the Seattle capitalist Horace C. Henry (1844-1928). In 1934, their surviving sons, Langdon C. Henry and Paul M. Henry donated the Horace C. Henry home and 12 lots at the northwest corner of Harvard Avenue N and Prospect Street to The Seattle Public Library. The gift was named for their mother. This property was later sold to pay for the present site. Construction of a permanent branch of the Seattle Public Library in the Capitol Hill neighborhood was delayed for two decades by the Great Depression, World War II, and a chronic lack of city funds (although temporary deposit stations and branches served the area). The Henry Branch building was designed by Naramore, Bain, Brady, and Johanson (NBBJ) architects, and served for many years as a home of Seattle's Library for the Blind and as a base for the Bookmobile program. The Susan J. Henry Memorial Branch building was replaced under the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond issue. The new branch opened on the same site in 2003 and is called the Capitol Hill Branch.
File 2868: Full Text >

High Point Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The history of the High Point Branch, The Seattle Public Library is one of turbulence, from the housing boom and mass migrations of World War II to the immigration and urban violence of the 1990s. Starting in a spare room with a few thousand books and then moving into a vacant housing unit, the branch has provided library services to a wide range of residents, particularly children. In 2004, High Point received its own building with room for 27,000 books.
File 3965: Full Text >

International District / Chinatown Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Located at 713 8th Avenue S in the International District Village Square II, the International District/Chinatown Branch, The Seattle Public Library, opened on June 11, 2005. Financed by the "Libraries for All" building program, the $735,000 branch is the first Seattle Public Library to be built in the International District/Chinatown neighborhood. The branch specializes in materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and English; staff members are fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Lao.
File 8768: Full Text >

Lake City Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Lake City Branch, The Seattle Public Library, started as a few shelves of books in part of a room sponsored by a community group. It grew into a branch of the King County Library System, after which The Seattle Public Library adopted it. The Lake City Branch's 1965 home had an award-winning design and formed the basis of a major expansion completed in 2005 under the Libraries For All program.
File 4031: Full Text >

Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch, The Seattle Public Library

The Madrona-Sally Goldmark Branch, The Seattle Public Library serves the eastern portion of Seattle's Central Area. The branch has its roots in a pilot program called a Book-Tique in 1971. A surplus fire station nearby became the branch's home in 1973 and it was renamed for community leader Sally Goldmark (1907-1985) in 1986.
File 4034: Full Text >

Magnolia Branch, The Seattle Public Library

Beginning in 1943 as the fruit of neighborhood activism, the Magnolia Branch, The Seattle Public Library, has become an architectural landmark and a showcase for public art as well as a cultural and educational resource. Community-funded artworks reflect Magnolia residents' commitment to the library. Among the branches in Seattle, Magnolia is noted for its collection of opera material.
File 3879: Full Text >

Mobile Services, The Seattle Public Library -- The Bookmobile

Since 1947, Seattle readers who cannot get to the main library or to a branch have been served by the bookmobile and other mobile services. The bookmobile first brought books to readers in Seattle's growing neighborhoods. Routes were adjusted as the city expanded and as new branches were built. Bookmobiles gradually got away from serving neighborhoods and eventually served seniors and residents of retirement and nursing homes, homebound individuals, and childcare centers.
File 4153: Full Text >

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