Editing Boston Public Library (section)

==Branch library system==
In the latter half of the 19th century, the library worked vigorously to develop and expand its branch library system. Viewed as a means to extend its presence throughout the city, the branch system evolved from an idea in 1867 to a reality in 1870, when the first branch library in the United States was opened in [[East Boston, Massachusetts|East Boston]]. The library currently has 25 branches serving diverse populations in the city's neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/ |publisher=Bpl.org |title= BPL - Neighborhood Branch Libraries |access-date=2014-06-30}}</ref>

* [[Chinatown, Boston]]
**'''Chinatown Branch''', 2 Boylston Street. After lacking a local branch for 60 years, a temporary branch opened in the China Trade Center in February 2018 as a result of community activism. Prior to this, it had been served until the 1950s by a branch on Tyler Street.<ref>{{Cite web|title=After 60 Years, Chinatown May Finally Get Its Neighborhood Library Back|url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/04/25/chinatown-neighborhood-library|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.wbur.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Chinatown Project|url=https://www.bpl.org/chinatown-project/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
*[[North End, Boston]] [[File:North End Branch, 2016.jpg|alt=The outside of the one-story North End Branch of the Boston Public Library system. There are two cars parked in front, and a person in a blue t-shire and black shorts walking in the street. The building is mostly brick, but there is a section of doors and windows for the entrance.|thumb|North End Branch, 2016.]]
** '''North End Branch''', 25 Parmenter Street. A delivery station was first opened in 1882.<ref name="Massachusetts p.29">First Report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts. 1891; p.29.</ref> In 1913 the branch was located at 3A North Bennett Street. In 1965 it moved to its current building, designed by [[Carl Koch (architect)|Carl Koch]] and Associates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/north.htm |title=Retrieved 2010-06-08 |publisher=Bpl.org |date=1967-06-01 |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>
* [[South End, Boston]]
** '''South End Branch''', 685 Tremont Street. "Library service was established in the South End in 1877. The Branch was located in the [[Mercantile Library Association (Boston, Massachusetts)|Mercantile Library Association]] until 1879 when it was moved to the [[English High School of Boston|English High School]]. In 1904 the Branch relocated to 397 Shawmut Avenue and then again in 1923 to the John J. Williams Municipal Building at Shawmut Avenue and West Brookline Street.<ref name="SAMMARCO2006">Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QcVG0EZNBv0C ''Boston's South End''], Arcadia Publishing, 2006. Cf. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QcVG0EZNBv0C&dq=John+J.+Williams+Municipal+Building+at+Shawmut+Avenue+and+West+Brookline+Street&pg=PA32 p.32]</ref> On June 7, 1971 the South End Branch Library moved to a new building at its present location, which was on the site of the original Mercantile building."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/southend.htm |title=Retrieved 2010-06-08 |publisher=Bpl.org |date=1971-06-07 |access-date=2013-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105183910/http://www.bpl.org/branches/southend.htm |archive-date=2013-01-05 }}</ref>
* [[West End, Boston]]
** '''West End Branch''', 151 Cambridge Street. "Library service in the West End was initiated in 1894 with the conversion of the [[Old West Church (Boston, Massachusetts)|Old West Church]] on the corner of Cambridge and Lynde Streets to library use. The West End Branch opened in February 1896. The West End Redevelopment Project necessitated closing the Branch in 1960. As part of the project a new building designed by Maginnis, Walsh and Kennedy opened in January 1968."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/westend.htm |title=West End Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>

[[Image:2010 public library Brighton Massachusetts 4457483634.jpg|thumb|Faneuil Branch, Brighton, 2010]]
* [[Brighton, Boston|Brighton]]
** '''Brighton Branch''', 40 Academy Hill Road, Brighton. Branch service in Brighton began when the town was annexed to the city of Boston in 1874 and the Brighton Social Library became part of the Boston Public Library. That year also saw the collection move from the former town hall to a new library building named for James Holton, a prominent Brighton resident. A new branch building opened on the same location in 1969. In 2018, the library reopened after undergoing extensive renovations for almost two years.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Brighton|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-brighton/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
** '''Faneuil Branch''', 419 Faneuil Street, Brighton. Located in Oak Square, the art-deco style building replaced a temporary location on nearby Brooks Street in 1931.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Faneuil|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-faneuil/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref> In 2020, the branch temporarily closed for extensive renovations. It is expected to reopen by the end of 2022<ref>{{Cite web|title=Faneuil Branch of the Boston Public Library to Close on November 20 for a Planned Renovation|url=https://www.bpl.org/news/faneuil-branch-of-the-boston-public-library-to-close-on-november-20-for-a-planned-renovation/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref> This building is currently under consideration for [[Boston Landmark]] status by the [[Boston Landmarks Commission]], but remains closed as of August 2023.

[[Image:2009 HonanBranch public library Boston.jpg|thumb|Honan-Allston Branch, 2009]]
* [[Allston]]
** '''[[Honan-Allston Library|Honan-Allston Branch]]''', 300 North Harvard Street, Allston. "Allston's library service began in 1889 in a delivery station in Frank Howe's drugstore at 26 Franklin Street. ... In 1905, the Allston Reading Room at 354 Cambridge Street replaced the 16-year-old delivery station.  A BPL librarian staffed the reading room.  It became a full-service branch of the Boston Public Library in 1924. The branch moved to rented space at 161 Harvard Avenue in 1929. ... In 1981, amid statewide budget cuts, the Allston branch was closed.  ... On January 19, 2000 ground was broken for the Allston Branch Library.  Designed by [[Machado and Silvetti Associates]] ... the branch officially opened for business on Saturday, June 16, 2001. On March 13, 2003 the branch was renamed the Honan-Allston branch in honor of City Councilor Brian Honan."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/allston.htm |title=Honan-Allston Branch |publisher=BPL |access-date=2013-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709111712/http://www.bpl.org/branches/allston.htm |archive-date=2013-07-09 }}</ref>
* [[Charlestown, Boston|Charlestown]]
** '''Charlestown Branch''', 179 Main Street, Charlestown. The Charlestown Branch Library originated with the addition of the town of Charlestown's public library when it was annexed in 1874. The library had opened at the start of 1862 in the Warren Institution for Savings Building with 6,000 volumes in its collection before moving to a space in the Charlestown City Hall in 1869. It remained at this location until it moved to the corner of Monument Square and Monument Avenue in 1913. It moved again in 1970 to its current location on Main Street.<ref name="Massachusetts p.29" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=About Charlestown|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-charlestown/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Dorchester, Boston|Dorchester]]
** '''Adams Street Branch''', 690 Adams Street, Dorchester. Library service in the Adams Street neighborhood began in 1875 with the implementation of a delivery station on Walnut street, followed by a reading room on Neponset Avenue in 1907. It moved to its current location in 1951.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Adams Street|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-adams-street/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref> The 1951 building was replaced by a new, larger building in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Adams Street library 'raises the bar'; Reopening scheduled for July 31 {{!}} Dorchester Reporter |url=https://www.dotnews.com/2021/new-adams-street-library-raises-bar-reopening-scheduled-july-31 |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=www.dotnews.com |language=en}}</ref>
** '''Codman Square Branch''', 690 Washington Street, Dorchester. "Opened in 1905 the branch was named for John Codman, a local preacher and patriot. It moved to 690 Washington Street in 1978, into a building designed by Eco-Texture, Inc."<ref>Report of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, 1906</ref>
** '''Fields Corner Branch''', 1520 Dorchester Avenue, Dorchester. The Fields Corner Branch was opened in 1969 to replace the first Dorchester Branch, which had been located nearby.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/fields.htm |title=Fields Corner Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>
** '''Grove Hall Branch''', 41 Geneva Avenue, Dorchester. "The first library in this section of Roxbury opened May 1, 1898 in the rear of Mr. Mowry's Drug Store at the corner of Warren Street and Haynes Park with one table, eight chairs, two shelves and 200 books. ... In 1919 the building on the corner of Warren and Savin Streets officially became the Warren Street Branch Library. In 1926, this branch moved into its new quarters in the New Roxbury Memorial High School and thus became the Memorial Branch Library. The Memorial Branch was replaced in December 1970 by the Grove Hall Branch Library located at the corner of Warren and Crawford Streets. On April 4, 2009 the new branch library at 41 Geneva Avenue ... opened. Located in the newly-renovated Jeremiah E. Burke High School, the new library was designed by Schwartz/Silver Architects."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/grove.htm |title=Grove Hall Branch |publisher=BPL |date=2009-04-04 |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>
** '''Lower Mills Branch''', 27 Richmond Street, Dorchester. In 1875, a branch delivery post opened in the Lower Mills neighborhood of Dorchester supplied through the Central Library and the Dorchester Branch Library. It was promoted to branch status in 1876. The Branch moved in 1883 to the Blue Hills Bank building and built an addition in 1936. It moved to its current location on Richmond Street in 1981.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/lower.htm |title=Lower Mills Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=About Lower Mills|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-lower-mills/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref> The branch was scheduled to close in 2010, but as of 2021 is still in operation.<ref name="ReferenceA">Trustees vote yes on library closings. Boston Globe. Apr 10, 2010</ref>
** '''Uphams Corner Branch''', 500 Columbia Road, Dorchester. Library service in Dorchester's Uphams Corner began with a temporary store-front location on Dudley Street before it moved in 1904 to an upper floor of a municipal building on Columbia Road. When the pool one floor below was closed, the library expanded into it and converted the former pool into a children's room.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Uphams Corner|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-uphams-corner/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Image:2008 public library East Boston 3011072596.jpg|thumb|East Boston Branch, 2008]]
[[File:Orient Heights Branch, Boston Public Library (2).jpg|thumb|Orient Heights Branch, 2011. A branch in East Boston which closed in 2013.]]
* [[East Boston]]
** '''East Boston Branch''', 365 Bremen Street, East Boston. "Established in 1869, the East Boston Branch Library was the first municipally supported branch library in the United States. It opened in the old Lyman School with the collections of the East Boston Library Association and the Sumner Library."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/eastboston.htm |title=East Boston Branch |publisher=BPL |access-date=2013-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105184325/http://www.bpl.org/branches/eastboston.htm |archive-date=2013-01-05 }}</ref> The current East Boston Branch, designed by William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., opened in November 2013.<ref>{{cite web |title=East Boston Branch |url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/eastboston.htm |work=Boston Public Library |access-date=2 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315235739/http://www.bpl.org/branches/eastboston.htm |archive-date=15 March 2014 }}</ref>
* [[Hyde Park, Boston|Hyde Park]]
** '''Hyde Park Branch''', 35 Harvard Avenue, Hyde Park. "The town of Hyde Park opened its first library in the Cobb's block of Everett Square in 1873. In 1884 it moved to larger quarters in the Masonic Block at the corner of Harvard Avenue and River Street. Ground was broken for the Town Library in December 1898 and the ... building was opened in September, 1899. The Library became a branch of the Boston Public Library when the town joined the City of Boston in 1912. ... In 1997 ground was broken for a new addition and a renovation of the existing building," completed in 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/hyde.htm |title=Hyde Park Branch |publisher=BPL |access-date=2013-10-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015204709/http://www.bpl.org/branches/hyde.htm |archive-date=2013-10-15 }}</ref> It is now the third-largest branch in Boston Public Library, after the Central Library and the West Roxbury branch, with area of {{convert|23000|sqft|m2}}.<ref name=factsheet />
* [[Jamaica Plain]]
** '''Connolly Branch''', 433 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain. "Library service to the Hyde Square area of Jamaica Plain began in 1897 with a small book deposit in the rear of a neighborhood pharmacy at the corner of Lamartine and Paul Gore Streets. Eventually, in 1905 the Boylston Branch, named for the Boylston Railroad Station, opened its doors. Responding to the need for larger space, a beautiful white limestone building was built and opened in 1932. Designed by Maginnis and Walsh in the Jacobean style, the large arched entrance leads to a large interior space with wood and glass partitions dividing the adult and children's area. The ceilings, decorated with plaster moldings, are reputedly inspired by the Rufford Abbey Library in England. On December 12, 1940, the name of the branch was officially changed to the Monsignor Arthur T. Connolly Branch, as a tribute to Monsignor Connolly, a long-time member of the Boston Public Library Board of Trustees and pastor of the neighboring Blessed Sacrament Church."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/connolly.htm |title=Connolly Branch |publisher=BPL |date=1940-12-12 |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>
** '''Jamaica Plain Branch''', 12 Sedgwick Street, Jamaica Plain. "The Jamaica Plain Branch began in June, 1876, as a small Reading Room in Curtis Hall, with books supplied by the Roxbury Branch of the BPL. In September, 1877, it expanded and became the first BPL branch to purchase books from public funds. After a fire in 1908, the present building was constructed. The architecturally distinctive building features large schoolhouse windows and two fireplaces. It opened on July 24, 1911. An addition was built in 1936 and the interior was remodeled in 1963."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/jamaica.htm |title=Jamaica Plain Branch |publisher=BPL |date=1911-07-24 |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref><ref>Libraries spared from closure, Jamaica Plain Gazette, Apr 16, 2010</ref> In June 2015, it was closed for renovation. It reopened in May 2017.
* [[Mattapan]]
** '''Mattapan Branch''', 1350 Blue Hill Avenue, Mattapan. The Mattapan Branch started as a reading room and book delivery station in the Oakland Hall building before becoming an official Branch in 1923. It moved to 10 Hazelton Street in June 1931. It moved again in 2009, when the new Mattapan Branch building opened at its current location on Blue Hill Avenue. The new building was designed by William Rawn Associates Architects, Inc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/mattapan.htm |title=Mattapan Branch |publisher=BPL |access-date=2013-01-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105184515/http://www.bpl.org/branches/mattapan.htm |archive-date=2013-01-05 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=About Mattapan|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-mattapan/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Image:2008 Roslindale public library Boston 2859098857.jpg|thumb|Roslindale Branch, 2008]]
* [[Roslindale]]
** '''Roslindale Branch''', 4238 Washington Street, Roslindale. "Library service has been provided to Roslindale since 1898. At that time, a book delivery station was located in a drugstore at the corner of Washington and Ashland Streets. ... In 1900 the library was moved to the Old Taft's Tavern building. In 1918, having outgrown its quarters, the library moved to the Municipal Building at the Corner of Washington Street and Cummins Highway. When the municipal facility became outmoded plans were made to move the library again. At the corner of Washington and Poplar Streets was a fire house which was torn down for the new library site. In 1961, a semi-circular building with huge glass windows, topped with a low blue dome, was designed by Isidor Richmond and Carny Goldberg."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/roslindale.htm |title=Roslindale Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>

[[File:Boston Public Library Egleston Square.jpg|thumb|Egleston Square, 2011]]
* [[Roxbury, Boston|Roxbury]]
** '''Roxbury Branch''', 65 Warren Street, Roxbury. Formerly the Dudley Branch Library, which opened at its current location in April 1978. It replaced the Mount Pleasant Branch and the associated Fellowes Atheneaum.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/dudley.htm |title=Dudley Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref> 
** '''Egleston Square''', 2044 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury. The Egleston Square Branch opened in its current location in July 1953. The building was designed by the firm of Isidor Richmond and Carney Goldberg. The Boston Mural Crew added a mural to the side in 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Egleston Square|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-egleston-square/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
** '''Parker Hill Branch''', 1497 Tremont Street, Roxbury. The first location opened just down the street at 1518 Tremont Street in 1907 before moving to the current Gothic-style building in 1931, which was designed by [[Ralph Adams Cram]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Parker Hill|url=https://www.bpl.org/about-parker-hill/|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.bpl.org|language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[South Boston]]
** '''South Boston Branch''', 646 East Broadway, South Boston. "The South Boston Branch first opened in April 1872 in the Masonic building at 372 West Broadway. It was the second branch library established in the United States. When the Masonic building was sold in 1948 the South Boston Branch was closed. ... The branch was reopened in June 1950 in a storefront at 385–8 West Broadway were it remained until destroyed by fire in May 1957. The present building ... consolidated the City Point Branch with the South Boston Branch."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/southboston.htm |title=South Boston Branch |publisher=BPL |date= |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref>
* [[West Roxbury, Boston|West Roxbury]]
** '''West Roxbury Branch''', 1961 Centre Street, West Roxbury. "In 1876 the Boston Public Library created a delivery station when it took over the collection of the West Roxbury Free Library. In 1896 it became a full branch of the Boston Public Library. In 1921–22, a new library building was built at the present site. In 1977 a devastating fire destroyed the neighboring West Roxbury Congregational Church and the land was deeded to the Trustees of the Boston Public Library for the purpose of an addition to the Branch building. On September 24, 1989 the new addition was opened to the public with community rooms, a gallery and a reading garden. The branch is home to the West Roxbury Historical Society."<ref name="Massachusetts p.29"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bpl.org/branches/westroxbury.htm |title=West Roxbury Branch |publisher=BPL |date=1989-09-24 |access-date=2013-01-02}}</ref> It is now the second-largest branch in Boston Public Library, after the Central Library, with area of {{convert|24200|sqft|m2}}.<ref name=factsheet />