Burlington Public Library Historical Timeline
Proudly serving our community since 1872.
January 1872
Local trustees vote to spend $56 on books. The books are purchased and placed in the reception hallway at the schoolhouse located on the southeast corner of Brant and Caroline Streets. Members pay fifty cents a year to access the collection between 4 and 5pm on Friday afternoons. They incorporate a Public Library Board and elect W.H. Finnemore as chair.
1890s
The library purchases more books with funds raised through membership fees, proceeds from concerts and social events, and occasional grants from the school trustees. A variety of groups, including the first YMCA and the Mechanics Institute, maintain the community library’s collection.
The collection moves around, often kept in the homes of local residents who serve as librarians. Eventually, the library collection settles in the home of Henry Berry on Brant Street.
December 31, 1901
The year-end report shows the library has 2,075 books, and patrons borrow the books 3,136 times throughout the year.
1906
John Waldie, former village reeve and MPP for Halton, offers to pay the building costs for a permanent library if the Village provides a site. All but two eligible voters support this plan during a public referendum.
Town Council grants the Public Library Board $1,000 to purchase a site, and the Board makes its purchase in June 1906.
Around this time, there are 130 library members, and the collection includes 2,600 books and 12 magazine subscriptions.
February 21, 1907
Burlington Public Library officially opens the doors to its first permanent location at the corner of Brant and James Street, the current location of Burlington City Hall, sharing space with town offices and council chambers. In addition to funding the building, John Waldie generously donates 6,000 books to the public library.
1935
Dorothy Angus becomes the chief librarian and revives the endangered library.
December 19, 1952
The Library Board turns the Brant Street building over to the town in return for a house at 482 Elizabeth Street. The new space includes a 60-seat auditorium for community programs.
1,534 members use the library’s growing collection of 10,000 items.
September 29, 1960
Aldershot branch, BPL’s first satellite location, opens in the basement of the Dominion Store.
1965
In the spring, a small browsing collection and book drop open in the Coulter farmhouse on Guelph Line to serve north Burlington residents. This collection, known as Lowville Library, moves with the Coulters to their new home on Derry Road around 1966.
Skyway branch opens to the public on July 26 in east Burlington’s Skyway Plaza and hosts a community celebration.
January 1968
Lucille Galloway becomes Chief Librarian and leads the library’s transition from the converted house on Elizabeth Street to the current Central Library on New Street in Central Park. This transition shifts BPL from a small community library to a modern urban library. She and the Library Board, led by Frank Rose, tirelessly champion and advocate for this important and enormous step in the history of library service to the community.
October 1958
Mountain Gardens branch opens in the Mount Royal Plaza.
1969
Lowville Library relocates into Kilbride Public School and opens as Kilbride branch.
November 15, 1970
Governor General Roland Michener officially opens the new Central Library on New Street in Central Park.
This state-of-the-art facility was designed by Brook-Carruthers-Grierson-Shaw Architects. Central Library wins the prestigious Award of Excellence in the Concrete Awards program (for buildings costing less than $1,000,000) presented by the Department of Industry, Trade & Commerce and the National Design Council.
November 22, 1971
Skyway branch relocates to Appleby Mall and opens as New Appleby branch. The library officially celebrates the new location on January 16, 1972.
May 24, 1975
Central Library’s first building expansion officially opens. It houses a seminar room that seats 50 and the relocated film department. This new $550,000 extension results in a larger adult circulation area and a larger reference area. Children still have their own check-out desk.
June 6, 1991
Eric Pilon, Library Board Chair and Wendy Schick, Chief Librarian of Burlington Public Library, sign a 'Declaration of Sister Libraries' with Toshio Yoshino, Director, and Kimihide Unose, Chief Librarian, Akatsuka Branch of Itabashi Public Library, Tokyo, Japan.
September 14, 1996
Tansley Woods, the first new library branch in 28 years, opens in the City’s new community centre. It is designed by Stafford Haensli Architects in association with Shore, Tilbe, Irwin and Partners.
2003
Central Library renovation and expansion project starts.
June 25, 2005
Tyandaga branch relocates to the new community centre and opens as Brant Hills branch. The facility is designed by Teeple Architects Inc.
September 24, 2005
Central Library, designed by Teeple Architects Inc., reopens with a big party.
April 3, 2009
Maureen Barry becomes Chief Executive Officer (formerly called the City Librarian).
January 13, 2012
Aldershot branch officially opens in its new location within a Halton Community Housing Corporation building. Designed by KNY Architects Inc., it is the first BPL branch to open in a residential complex.
September 30, 2013
BPL's seventh branch library opens its doors. Alton branch, located in a shared facility with the Dr Frank J Hayden Secondary School and Haber Recreation Centre, is a unique hybrid library that blends public library and high school library services and operates jointly with the Halton District School Board.
June 4, 2018
Lita Barrie becomes Chief Executive Officer.
2022
Burlington Public Library celebrates 150 years of library service in Burlington.
The Story of the Old Town Bell at Central
One of the constants in the lives of village residents was the 1,000-pound town bell that now stands outside Burlington Public Library’s Central Branch. It was purchased in 1894 and hung in the old town hall on Elizabeth St. In those days, not many people had clocks or watches, so the bell would ring at 7am when workers would start work, at noon and 1pm to signal the start and end of the lunch hour, and at 6pm when it was time to go home. When rung quickly, it meant there was a fire and alerted the town’s fire department. The first bell ringer, James Powell, was paid $50 a year in the first years; eventually, this duty was included in those of the custodian of the Town Hall.
In 1916, when the Town Council decided to join the other Halton municipalities in adopting Daylight Savings Time, the bell ringer cooperated for the first two weeks; however, there was opposition, and within two weeks, the bell ringer reverted to the previous schedule.
When the Town offices moved to Brant Street in 1952, the Elizabeth Street building was sold to the Boy Scouts. Service to the bell was cut when the city decided it was too expensive to pay the bell ringer $250 a year, so it went into storage. The bell tower was demolished, and the bell was stored in a field at the Boy Scout Camp in Lowville.
One night it was stolen from its storage place in Lowville. Not long after the authorities were notified, they saw a car riding very low to the road—and when they pulled it over, the bell was inside. The thieves were taking it to a foundry to have it melted down.
The bell was then stored behind the Works Department yard until the early 1960s when William Gilbert, chair of the Library Board, raised $1,400 to install the bell in front of the Elizabeth Street Library, across the street from where the old town hall had been located.
The Library's fundraising campaign was completed in 1962, and the bell remained with the Library as it moved to New Street in 1970.