Lambie\u2019s Hall (1894 \u2013 1903)<\/strong><\/p>\n The first library in Windsor opened in December 1894.\u00a0 A City of Windsor bylaw introduced permitting the development of a public library in Windsor had been submitted, and carried by a majority earlier in the year.\u00a0 City council and the Board of Education appointed representatives for the new library board, who, in turn, appointed a librarian and an assistant librarian.\u00a0 The motto of the new library board was, \u201cAude sapere<\/i>\u201d meaning \u201cdare to be wise.\u201d The public library and reading room were located in Lambie\u2019s Hall.\u00a0 Built it 1855, Lambie\u2019s Hall was located at the corner of Pitt and Ferry Streets and was previously the first Protestant church in Windsor. Read more…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Carnegie Library<\/b> (1903 – 1973)<\/strong><\/p>\n The new Carnegie Library opened in 1903.\u00a0 The two-story brick building\u2019s entrance faced Victoria Avenue and included a main reading room, a stack room where the books were shelved, and an auditorium.\u00a0 The library had a capacity for about 60,000 volumes.\u00a0 At the opening of the library, Mayor Drake had the honour of being the first customer and borrowed the first book, fittingly, \u201cThe Empire of Business<\/i>\u201d by Andrew Carnegie. Read more…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Bartlet House, Annex and Victoria House <\/b>(1957 \u2013 1973)<\/strong><\/p>\n The lower floor of the Annex facilitated a children\u2019s library to be available downtown again, and the Parent-Teacher library from Willistead was also moved downtown.\u00a0 The Annex housed more administrative areas and a book processing area.\u00a0 There was even room in the Bartlet House for a small conference room to be made available rent free to community groups \u201cwhich qualify as \u2018educational, cultural, non-profit, non-political organizations working for the good of the community\u2019\u201d and for lectures and film presentations by the library (Hume,\u00a01955).\u00a0 On his retirement in 1992, Anne Hume\u2019s eventual successor Fred Israel commented on the location of the Chief Librarian\u2019s office in the former front bedroom of the Bartlet House was stifling in the summer, as the building had no air conditioning.<\/p>\n In 1969, the WPL acquired another home in the corner of Park and Victoria near the Carnegie, 450 Victoria Avenue, known as the Victoria House.\u00a0 The catalogue, order office and book processing moved there to ease still growing pressure on the venerable Carnegie building. The Carnegie with the Bartlet House and the Annex closed in November, 1973, when the new Main Library was built.\u00a0 It was demolished in April, 1974, and an eight-story apartment building stands on the site at Victoria and Park.<\/p>\n East Branch<\/b> (1914 – 1933)<\/strong><\/p>\n Branch library service began in 1914 with the opening of an east-end location at Lanspeary\u2019s Drug Store.\u00a0 The rented store was furnished with library shelving and furniture, and a significant quantity of books placed there.<\/p>\n Branch service consisted of biweekly deliveries of books previously selected by customers.\u00a0 Slips were provided on which customers indicated the titles of requested books.\u00a0 The branch was moved twice in 1920 before moving to a store property on Langlois Avenue in 1925.\u00a0 The branch was situated in a densely populated area and since it was in close distance to seven schools over 70% of the circulation of books in the first year consisted of children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n Originally, it was thought that the children\u2019s department at Carnegie Library would have a loss in circulation because of the branch service but children\u2019s registration rose.\u00a0 In 1926, the branch was expanded, taking up two stores. The branch was closed in 1933 as a result of a decrease in the Library Board\u2019s municipal funding during the Depression.<\/p>\n Sandwich Library (1923 \u2013 )<\/b><\/p>\n In 1995, the WPL Board was still searching for a suitable location for this branch when the Principal of General Brock School approached the Board with the suggestion of sharing the location in the new school building planned.\u00a0\u00a0 Friends of the Sandwich Library, headed by John Muir, presented the WPL Board with $150,000 by the 1999 opening.\u00a0 The funds were raised through charity bingos in order to purchase resources for the new branch.\u00a0 The Sandwich Library Branch is a unique, contemporary approach to building-sharing with the school and the local police station.<\/p>\n John Richardson Branch <\/b>(1928 – 1972)<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1927 a site in Wilson Park in the vicinity of Adie Knox Herman Recreational complex was donated for a west-end library branch.\u00a0 Named after the first Ontario novelist, city council issued $30,000 to construct the library. A drop in funding during the depression in 1932 forced the closure of the adult department. This changed to a children\u2019s library, supplemented by the books for the children\u2019s library at the main library which had been closed in order to provide needed space for adult books.<\/p>\n The juvenile library was very popular, hosting classes from nearby schools where children would learn how to find books, reference materials and use the card catalogue.\u00a0 Story hour was held every Saturday and brought large groups of children to hear the librarian read.\u00a0 The librarians found it a challenge to deal with an exclusive clientele of children as some of the younger customers would have trouble remembering when events took place. The library also responded to the development of schools requiring factual materials for school projects.<\/p>\n In 1969, the Richardson Branch absorbed the collections of the Prince Edward and Victoria Branches. Local historian George F. Macdonald donated all the novels of John Richardson to the library.<\/p>\n Hugh Beaton School Branch<\/b> (1929 – )<\/strong><\/p>\n The South Branch Library, Walkerville opened in 1929 with Annabelle McKillop as librarian.\u00a0 When the Border Cities amalgamated, the South Branch name changed to Hugh Beaton, the name of the school where the library was located.\u00a0 In 1950, the branch was moved to John Campbell School and in 1959, having outgrown this location, moved to its current site on Tecumseh Road East.<\/p>\n Prince Edward School Branch <\/b>(1933 – 1968)<\/strong><\/p>\n Victoria School Branch<\/b> (1934 – 1968)<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1934 a library branch opened at Victoria School with a small collection of books.\u00a0 It was only open to children for three afternoons a week. An amendment to the city of Windsor Amalgamation Act in 1936 brought the libraries under the Public Libraries\u2019 Act of the province.\u00a0 A library board was appointed to take over management of the libraries and merged them into one library system. This branch was closed when demand for the location was reduced and the library was merging its assets for greater efficiency.<\/p>\n J.E. Benson Memorial Library <\/b>(1936 – 1951)<\/strong><\/p>\n The J.E. Benson Memorial Library was opened in the Ontario Street School under the joint management of Windsor and Walkerville. The library board received a grant from the city to purchase books and children\u2019s furniture. The library was named in memory of J.E. Benson, Inspector of Public Schools, who established the branches in Prince Edward and Victoria schools. In 1951, the J.E. Benson Memorial Library moved from Ada C. Richards School to storage.<\/p>\n Winston Churchill<\/b> Library<\/b> (1941 \u2013 1952)<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1941, a children\u2019s library was opened in St. Alphonsus School in downtown Windsor.\u00a0 It was named in honour of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who was \u201cleading the world\u2019s fight to preserve democracy\u201d during World War II. (Annual Report, 1941)\u00a0 <\/b>This, and other smaller locations were inefficient to run in the long term, and this branch closed in 1952 as demands for books changed after the War.<\/p>\n Willistead Art Gallery of Windsor<\/b> (1943 \u2013 1959)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Art Gallery remained under management of the Library Board until 1959 when it became an autonomous, independent institution.<\/p>\n Wartime Housing Deposit Library <\/b>(1943 \u2013 1953)<\/strong><\/p>\n Wartime homes were initially built in Windsor to provide housing for the influx of wartime factory workers during World War II.\u00a0 To provide library services in the area, a children\u2019s deposit library was opened in 1943 at the Wartime Housing Clubhouse on Westcott Road.\u00a0 The next year library services were made available for adult readers and 250 adult books were added to the Wartime Housing Clubhouse after the WPL board realized the success of the children\u2019s library.\u00a0 Adult services ceased in 1948 and the name of the branch library was changed to Westcott Road Children\u2019s Library in 1949.<\/p>\n Seminole Library <\/b>(1953 – )<\/strong><\/p>\n When Seminole opened in October, 1953, it was billed as a \u201cFamily reading centre\u201d and featured a \u201cTeen Corner\u201d and an \u201cexperiment in book arrangement for adults \u2026worked out especially for [that] community\u201d with a \u201cYou and Your Family\u201d selection of books on parent-child relationships, and information about the home (Invitation to Opening<\/i>, 1953).\u00a0 There was also a Club Room for Story Hours and Reading Clubs for teens. The Windsor Star donated funds for a record collection of classical and semi-classical music. After the opening, one customer noted, \u201cWhy, it doesn\u2019t look at all like a library!\u201d which the librarian decided to accept as a compliment to the new space (Windsor Star, <\/i>March 16, 1954).<\/p>\n This branch replaced the J.E. Benson and the Ada C. Richards School branches and incorporated the collection of the Westcott Road Children\u2019s Deposit Station.<\/p>\n Seminole was popular with local schools and local young people, often overcrowding the new branch.\u00a0 Holy Names School staged a play at this branch in 1968.\u00a0 By 1994, an annual flower garden planting by children was held, and \u201csilly days\u201d through the summer \u2013 although Blodwen Reitz, the librarian at the time admitted that \u201cSpaghetti Fight Day\u201d should not be repeated (Windsor Star<\/i>, July 14, 1994).<\/p>\n The Friends of Seminole was formed in 1994, and its mandate was to fundraise for computer equipment, advise the librarians on programme development, assist with community outreach and help with literacy initiatives. Seminole was renovated in 2000 and continues as the oldest branch in the WPL system.<\/p>\n Hiram Walker Museum \u2013 254 Pitt Street West. <\/b><\/p>\n Tourists from the far corners of the world also saw the Windsor story and took it home with them.\u00a0 Newspaper editors from 35 of the United States toured the Museum.\u00a0 Through an interpreter, a group from Yokohama was taken back through the thousands of years of Man\u2019s occupancy on the Detroit [River]. <\/i>(R. Alan Douglas, WPL Annual Report, <\/i>1958)<\/p>\n Windsor, Ontario is a key area for the study of the history of First Nations in Canada and America and the first Europeans began to settle in Windsor.\u00a0 While many museums in Canada have incorporated a library space into their museum site, few public libraries have included a full museum as a branch of its operation.\u00a0\u00a0 The Fran\u00e7ois Baby (usually pronounced in the French manner as \u201cbahbee\u201d or \u201cbawbee\u201d) residence is one of the few surviving buildings that has witnessed this rich history.\u00a0\u00a0 More detailed histories of the museum exist elsewhere, but a short background is necessary to explain the significance of the property. Read more…<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Nikola Budimir Memorial Library<\/b> (1965 \u2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n Riverside Library (1939 –<\/i>)<\/b><\/p>\n The Riverside Branch opened as an Association Library funded by subscription fees in December, 1939.\u00a0 Similar to a Mechanics Institute, it was first located in the Hydro Building on Wyandotte St. East, with limited opening hours and a membership fee of $1 per year. It later became a tax-supported public library and a stand-alone branch was built in 1955. It became a branch of the Windsor Public Library in 1966.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a definite community feeling in Riverside \u2013 our customers want small-town friendliness with large city resources,\u201d said Callie Israel, librarian in 1969 (Annual Report, 75th<\/sup> Anniversary<\/i>).\u00a0 The Riverside Branch grew to be one of the larger branches with a loyal group of customers.\u00a0 Most were professionals of British origin, and selective about their books, choosing books on music, gardening and the classics.\u00a0 Customers supported staff, often bringing in gifts to staff who had been ill and offering support, \u201cmuch like a grandmother,\u201d said retired branch staff Ronnie Filby who moved to the Riverside Branch from the Carnegie Library in 1975 (Filby, November 9, 2012). The customers took their role as partners with the Riverside Library very seriously, and in 1993, the Friends of Riverside Library donated $100,000 to the WPL Board for the construction of a new building at the location.\u00a0 In 1995, the new building was built.\u00a0 By December, 1999, the Friends had donated $345,000 of the $551,000 that they had committed to the branch.\u00a0 Ronnie Filby recalls that the customers even helped to move the books into the new building on moving day, wheeling carts of boxes of books: \u201cwe were as a family moving across the street\u201d (Filby, November 9, 2012).<\/p>\n Ambassador Branch <\/b>(1972 \u2013 2000)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Ambassador Branch was opened in 1972 in leased space in the Ambassador Plaza in the west end of Windsor.\u00a0 It was opened after the old Sandwich Branch and John Richardson library were closed.\u00a0 When the Ambassador location on Huron Line was subject to increased traffic congestion, making the trek to the library dangerous for children.\u00a0 The collection was absorbed into the Bridgeview Library in 2002.<\/p>\n Tecumse<\/b>h Mall Branch <\/b>(1973 \u2013 1988)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tecumseh Branch leased mall space and by 1975, it was liaising with the new Main Branch\u2019s language centre to provide French literature to the community and schools. This branch served two growing neighbourhoods at the time, Fontainebleau and the planned subdivision of Forest Glade.\u00a0 Customers enjoyed the convenience of a library in a main shopping area.\u00a0 The lease was could not be renewed in 1988, so plans were made for a library branch in Forest Glade.<\/p>\n Main Library\/Central Branch (1973 – )<\/b><\/p>\n In her last Annual Report as Chief Librarian in 1956, Anne Hume reflected that the Bartlet House and Annex were only temporary measures to expand the area of the Carnegie Library.\u00a0 A new main library was needed.\u00a0 As the decade of the 1960s progressed, Windsor\u2019s citizens began to deliberate on a fitting 1967 commemoration of the Centennial of Canada, and a strong group of citizens joined with the WPL Board to call for a new main library to be built by 1967.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until 1968, when Fred Israel took over as chief librarian that plans began to take place, after a 25-year campaign to find suitable funding and a location.\u00a0 In February 1970, the library erected a billboard at the Carnegie site letting everyone in Windsor know about the new location \u2013 at the site of the former Ursuline Music School on the east side of Ouellette Avenue at Elliott Street.\u00a0 Windsor\u00a0 architects Johnson \u2013 McWhinnie were contracted to design the modern building with 101,467 sq ft with three floors and open spaces.<\/p>\n The Souvenir Brochure Commemorating the Opening of Windsor\u2019s New Public Library<\/i>, November 24, 1973, describes the contemporary features unusual to Windsor\u2019s library customers; vending machines (5% of sales were a fundraiser for the library), a drive-past book return chute, a sound system, air conditioning, and a mark of the decade of the 1970s, a smoking lounge.\u00a0 There was some public concern for the last feature, but the ethos of the day prevailed.\u00a0 There is no longer a smoking lounge at the Main Branch.<\/p>\n An Information Centre was located on the main floor to allow customers direct access to an automated catalogue which was linked to all seven branches at the time. There was a dedicated Local History Collection and the Municipal Archives was able to move to the new library.<\/p>\n In the 2000s, the \u201cMain Library\u201d became known as the Central Branch, reflecting the interconnected systems and cooperation throughout the WPL system.<\/p>\n \n![\"Carnegie](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Carnegie-Bartlet-and-Annex-1957.gif\" "\\"Carnegie")
<\/a>Community leader Miss Bartlet owned the large house next door to the Carnegie Library on Park Street.\u00a0 The WPL Board purchased her house in 1955 and renovated it, eventually adding an Annex building to connect the former residence to the library.\u00a0 The Bartlet House allowed the administration offices to return to the downtown site from Willistead, and the catalogue department moved to the lower floor of the house.\u00a0 The back of the house acted as a receiving room for the 12,000 books delivered every year, and became a central clearing area for all the books in the Windsor library system.<\/p>\n![\"Old](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Old-Sandwich-Library-1954.gif\" "\\"Old")
<\/a>There were two Sandwich Branches in the Windsor\u2019s history.\u00a0 The first was established in 1923 as an Association Library in the Town of Sandwich, and was located in the auditorium of the Town Hall, where the books were kept in sectional bookcases with locking glass doors. When the library was \u201cclosed,\u201d the bookcase doors were locked.\u00a0 In 1936, the Sandwich Branch was moved to a former Teachers\u2019 Training School building and closed in 1972.<\/p>\n![\"Prince](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Prince-Edward-Branch-Interior.gif\" "\\"Prince")
<\/a>A small children\u2019s branch library opened in the basement of Prince Edward School in 1933 to bring services to children in the east end.\u00a0 The library welcomed school children who would visit the library with their teachers to learn how to use the library.\u00a0 The partnership with the school board boosted library membership and the circulation of books.\u00a0 In 1957, it was noted that this branch had a \u201cnew, contemporary look with fluorescent lighting, turquoise walls, and deeper turquoise shelves\u201d (WPL Annual Report, <\/i>1957).\u00a0 When the school expanded to the library area, the collection was moved to another location and this branch was closed.<\/p>\n![\"Willistead](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Willistead-Art-Gallery.gif\" "\\"Willistead")
<\/a>The WPL continued with its plans to develop Willistead as a community arts centre by dedicating space for an art gallery in 1943.\u00a0 Anne Hume who was a librarian at Walkerville Library and appointed Chief Librarian upon amalgamation is largely credited for encouraging the library board in this new venture.\u00a0 New exhibitions were provided on a monthly basis by loan from the National Gallery of Canada or sponsored by the Windsor Art Association.\u00a0 The Art Association also provided lectures and discussion groups. According to librarian Anne Hume, \u201cAll of these services are part of the new techniques used to interest citizens in books and other cultural arts to the enrichment of individual and community life.\u201d (Summary of Library Service in the Border Area, 1894 \u2013 1945, Hume, 1945)<\/p>\n![\"Seminole](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Seminole-Branch.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Nikola-Budimir-Memorial-Library\"](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Nikola-Budimir-Memorial-Library.jpg\" "\\"Nikola")
<\/a>Local business owner Nikola Budimir bequeathed the property for the library.\u00a0 The building was funded by the then municipality of the Township of Sandwich West and was opened in December, 1965. The architects, Johnson and McWhinnie donated artwork above the door.\u00a0 The enameled steel panels were cast in Italy.\u00a0 In 1973, the Budimir family donated the adjacent track of land so that the library could expand in 1975.\u00a0 In 1999, the Roseland Golden \u201cK\u201d Kiwanis Club of Windsor donated funds to enhance the Children\u2019s Area.\u00a0 Budimir Branch suffered a flood in late, 2011, but remains a popular meeting point in South Windsor.<\/p>\n![\"Riverside](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Riverside-Library-Branch-Interior.gif\" "\\"Riverside")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Tecumseh](\"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Tecumseh-Mall-Branch-Interior.gif\" "\\"Tecumseh")
<\/p>\n