Cambridge Public Library

The Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts is part of the Minuteman Library Network. It consists of a main library and six branches, located throughout the city.

Cambridge Public Library
1888 building (photo 2012)
LocationCambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°22′26.8″N 71°06′38.9″W
Built1888
ArchitectVan Brunt & Howe (1888)
William Rawn Associates (2009)
Architectural styleRomanesque
MPSCambridge MRA
NRHP reference No.82001931[1]
Added to NRHPApril 13, 1982

In fiscal year 2014, the city of Cambridge spent 1.63% ($7,064,381) of its budget on the library, $66 per person.[2]

Main building
Main branch expansion building, 2011

The main building of the Cambridge Public Library is an historic library building at 449 Broadway. It was built in 1888 with land and full construction funding donated by Frederick H. Rindge, a Cambridge native and philanthropist. Its Richardsonian Romanesque design was by Van Brunt & Howe. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

A $90 million expansion and renovation of the library, led by the Boston architectural firms William Rawn Associates and Ann Beha Architects, opened on November 8, 2009.[3] The new addition more than triples the square footage of the building, and is the first building in the US to make use of European Double-Skin Curtainwall technology. Architectural drawings and construction photos are available here. During most of the construction, the library collection had been relocated to the Longfellow School.[4]

Museum of Science Community Solar System

Prior to the renovation of the main library, the library was home to a scale model of the planet Saturn in the Boston Museum of Science's community-wide solar system model.[5] Saturn was located just outside the portion of the building that housed the old stacks, roughly where the computer workstation sign-in table is currently located. The Saturn model was packed up and shipped back to the Museum of Science and was not positioned at the reopened renovated library.[6] Other locations in Cambridge that still have models in the historic nine planet series are the Royal Sonesta Hotel (home of Earth) and the Cambridgeside Galleria mall (home of Mars).

History of Organization

The Cambridge Public Library developed out of the Cambridge Athenaeum, which was founded in 1849 as "a lyceum, public library, and reading room with a building on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street where Cambridge residents could borrow books at the cost of one dollar per year.

The City of Cambridge acquired the Cambridge Athenaeum in 1858 and renamed it the Dana Library for use as a city hall and a public library. By 1866 the Library moved to the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Temple Street. In 1874, the library became free to the public and was renamed the Cambridge Public. The main building of the Cambridge Public Library at 449 Broadway was built in 1888.

Branches

Six smaller neighborhood branch libraries are scattered throughout the City of Cambridge. These are:

  • Boudreau Branch, 245 Concord Avenue, West Cambridge
  • Central Square Branch, 45 Pearl Street, Cambridgeport
  • Collins Branch, 64 Aberdeen Avenue, West Cambridge
  • O'Connell Branch, 48 Sixth Street, East Cambridge
  • O'Neill Branch, 70 Rindge Avenue, North Cambridge
  • Valente Branch, 826 Cambridge Street, East Cambridge

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014; cf. Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (2016). "FY 2014 Municipal Pie Report". Archived from the original on 2012-01-23. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  3. http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/11/10/cambridge-public-library-grand-opening-a-beautiful-library-for-a-great-innovation-city/
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-04-07. Retrieved 2009-08-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Community Solar System Official Passport" (PDF). Boston Museum of Science. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  6. Grice, Noreen (September 7, 2006). "why does the world continually conspire to thwart me?". Charles Hayden Planetarium. Retrieved July 3, 2013. The Saturn model was brought back to the Museum of Science when the Cambridge library closed, and is currently in storage. Since the Saturn and Neptune models are not available, we revised the Community Solar System passport to give credit for those planets.

Further reading
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