Address: 2161 Queen Street East
Architect:
Eden Smith & Sons
Opened:
1916, December 6
Beaches Branch opened on December 13, 1916 in a corner of Kew
Gardens. It was the last of three identical libraries (Wychwood
and High Park were the other two) that the Toronto Public Library
built with a $50,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New
York. Chief Librarian George Locke described the design by Eden
Smith & Sons as “a decided revolt in style from the traditional
library architecture ...after the fashion of the Collegiate Grammar
School of the Seventeenth Century in England.”
1
Major alterations
1980 Renovation and addition by Stinson Montgomery Sisam Architects.
Reopened 26 September. Addition demolished 2004.
2004-05 Renovation and addition by Phillip H. Carter and Kingsland
+ Architects Inc. Closed 17 April 2004. Reopened 20 January 2005;
officially reopened 22 January 2005
Heritage status
1979 Listed on Inventory of Heritage Properties, adopted by Toronto
City Council, October 1.
More Infomation
Campbell, Mary and Barbara Myrvold. The Beach
in pictures, 1793-1932. (Local History Handbook No. Six)
Toronto: Toronto Public Library Board, 1988.
Campbell, Mary and Barbara Myrvold. Historical
walking tour of Kew Beach. Toronto: Toronto Public Library
Board, 1995.
1 Toronto Public Library, Annual
Report, 1916, 11.
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