Carnegie Library - Beaches

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.

¹Toronto Public Library, Annual Report, 1916, 11.