1894 Founder Dr. William Pepper and Head Librarian John Thomson, initiate a fundraising campaign for land purchase and building construction.

1894 The Free Library moves from a few overcrowded rooms in City Hall to the old Concert Hall Building at 1217-1221 Chestnut Street. However, library officials dislike the cramped location because of its unsafe and unsanitary conditions. They also consider the next-door theater and saloon to be inappropriate neighbors for a library.

1897 Philadelphia voters approve a referendum for a municipal loan that includes up to "one million dollars for library site and building." Over the next several years, a library committee considers numerous sites, including Logan Square.

1902 The Library's Board of Trustees solicits "sealed proposals" for a site, in local newspapers. Submissions include one that would demolish our Academy of Music, but all are rejected.

1903 Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donates $1.5 million to the Free Library to erect thirty branches, initiating a library building boom. Carnegie's generosity opens avenues of literacy to many working-class and immigrant Philadelphians; but this massive campaign forces the Library's Board to lose some momentum in their search for a central location.

1905 Efforts to find a suitable home for a main building are heightened. The School of Industrial Art (Broad and Pine Streets) becomes a prime candidate, but the deal collapses.

1910 The Free Library moves to the College of Physicians building at Thirteenth and Locust Streets (northeast corner, now a surface parking lot). It remains here until moving to its current location in 1927.