| Year |
Details |
|
| 1855 |
A library is established in S. S. No. 9 (the so-called Don school), a red brick schoolhouse built in 1853 at the southeast corner of today's Don Mills Road and Lawrence Avenue East on land donated by William Milne. The library may have been discontinued in 1869; from 1870 on, being librarian is not mentioned in teacher contracts. |
| 1896 |
Don Public Library is established, with the first meeting of the board of management held on 20 April 1896. The first books were placed on shelves in Agnes (Aggie) Hogg's general store, located on the east side of Don Mills Road, north of the Grand Trunk Railway bridge, which she operated along with the Don Post Office and the library as a public service. |
| 1904 |
Listed as a "free" public library. |
| 1918-20 |
Don Public Library is moved from the general store to an abandoned military hut on the farm of James Muirhead, located on the west side of Don Mills Road, about a quarter-mile north of today's Lawrence Avenue (west half of lot 7, 3rd concession east of Yonge Street, York Township). |
| 1937 |
Don Public Library is closed. The children's books are transferred to Don School Section No. 9 York Township, and the old library building is given to Gordon Muirhead, who converted it to a hen house. |
| 1954 |
North York Public Library Association Board announces on 14 July that its first bookmobile will stop at the "Don Mills development". |
| 1955 |
North York Public Library Board announces on 24 May that one of its first two branches will be called Don Mills. |
| 1956 |
Craig and Madill, Architects are appointed as the architects for the Don Mills Branch, 18 April. On 4 May, the Library Board authorizes the purchase of “approximately 250 feet of Lawrence Avenue frontage at the west side of the Donway West from Curran Hall Construction Company at a price of $30,000, conditional on our being able to obtain the necessary assurances that construction of a library be permitted on this site with a vehicular entrance on Lawrence Avenue or the Donway.” On 12 September, it authorizes “purchase for the remainder of all the vacant land lying to the west of the present Don Mills site for the sum of approximately $15,000.00.” The Don Mills Branch was projected to cost $250,000. |
| 1961 |
Don Mills Branch is opened at the current location by the North York Public Library Board, 14 November. Officially opened 15 April 1962. Craig, Madill, Abram and Ingleson, Architects. |
| 1963 |
Renovated and enlarged to regional/area size. Craig, Madill, Abram and Ingleson, Architects. |
| 1994 |
Renovated. Reopened 13 June. Joseph Bogdan Associates Architects. |
| 1997 |
Included on an inventory of North York's Modernist Architecture prepared by the City of North York Planning Department, Urban Design Division. |
| 2007 |
New hours, 8 January. Number of open hours per week unchanged. |
| 2011 |
Don Mills Branch celebrates 50th Anniversary. Open house and festivities held on 12 November. |
| 2013 |
Closed 19 August for beginning of renovation and RFID installation. Reopened 26 August with limited access while renovation continued. |
| 2014 |
Closed 10 February for completion of renovation and RFID installation. Reopened 18 February. Architect Ken Fukushima. |
