The institution was supported entirely by the Chamber of Commerce, the members in the beginning subscribing $15,000 for the purchase of books. 1, 1886, under the name of the Mercantile Library, occupying quarters first in the old Times building on Lawrence street near Sixteenth, and later in the attic of the building at Fourteenth and Lawrence streets, once the home of the Chamber of Commerce. Light, it was voted 'that a room be set apart in the Chamber of Commerce building for a library to be known as The Mercantile Library of the City of Denver, under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce.' Woodbury, banker and financier, who was president of the Chamber, was the prime mover in the enterprise. At a meeting of the directors held at his office in the old Times building, on July 17th, 1884, on motion of Mr. What is now the Denver Public Library grew out of the organization in 1884 of what was known as the Chamber of Commerce Library.

The books were presented to the Board of Education and they formed the nucleus of the collection used by the High School Library, which for many years occupied the south wing of the East Denver High School building and furnished the people with reading matter. It held the field for four years, when it disbanded, owing to lack of financial support. Todd and several other public spirited citizens. Find out more about Better Denver Bond projects at the Denver Public Library.Īccording to Denver Municipal Facts, Denver's first library, called the Denver and Auraria Reading Room Associates, was formed in 1860 and paid for by subscription fees of twenty five cents a week. In 1874, the Denver Library Association was organized by W. This funding has also provided the means to make much needed infrastructure repairs to existing Library facilities. In 2007, Denver voters supported a bond issue that enabled the Denver Public Library to build three new branch libraries in newly developed and underserved areas of the city, including Green Valley Ranch, Stapleton, and West Denver. Branch improvements were also completed by 1995. A 540,000 square-foot Central Library, the awesome design of world-renowned Michael Graves and the Denver firm of Klipp Colussy Jenks DuBois, opened in 1995.

In 1990, an overwhelming 75 percent of the city's voters approved a $91.6 million bond issue to build a new Central Library and renovate, expand or build new branch library buildings. Moreover, aging buildings weren't adaptable to the flowering technology of the Information Age. Three-quarters of Central Library materials were stored in basements and warehouses. Ross Trust Fund was invested in ways that are still providing financial assistance to the Denver Public Library.īy the late 1980s, Library collections had outgrown the Central Library and most branch libraries. Among them were the four Ross branches, Ross-Broadway (1951), Ross-Barnum (1954), Ross-University Hills (1962), and Ross-Cherry Creek (1962), funded by a $100,000 bequest from Denver real estate investor and Library Commissioner Frederick Ross. A string of new branch libraries opened to serve sprawling neighborhoods to the southeast and southwest. Denver experienced explosive growth between the 1950s and the 1970s. Opened in 1956, the new structure provided more than twice the space of the Carnegie building, but was expected to meet Denver Public Library's needs for only a decade. The 'Old Main' library in Civic Center Park served downtown Denver for 45 years, until the City commissioned the firm of Fisher and Fisher/Burnham Hoyt to design a new Central Library at the corner of Broadway and 14th Avenue. They would serve a growing city that had previously relied on traveling trunks of books, and begin the tradition of the Library expressing its civic role through architectural excellence. Between 19, Carnegie also underwrote construction of the city's first eight branch libraries.

Since Denver's early days, the Denver Public Library, in all of its many forms, has provided a focal point for literacy, learning and culture, always based on a model of democratic public access.Īs early as 1886, fledgling libraries in Denver began gathering force, finally blossoming as a result of the largesse of an industrialist. In 1910, the city opened a Central Library building of its own, an elegant Greek temple design funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and located in downtown's Civic Center Park. The Denver Public Library, one of the jewels of Denver's Civic Center, is both a valuable resource and a stop-on-the-tour for Denver, the State of Colorado, and the entire world.

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