Between the inauguration of the Free Library in 1894
and the opening of its present, permanent home on
the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 1927, the central
branch of the Free Library occupied three temporary
headquarters. After less than a year in its cramped
rooms in City Hall, the central branch relocated to
the Old Concert Hall building at 1217-1221
Chestnut Street. Dissatisfied with the quarters from the start, library officials
criticized their new home as "an entirely unsuitable building, where its work is
done in unsafe, unsanitary and overcrowded quarters, temporary make-shifts."
Surrounded by "a theatre on one side, a saloon on the other, factories in the
rear, a store on the ground floor," they yearned for a fire-proof, spacious,
permanent central library building.
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Seeking a suitable home for the central library,
President William Pepper and Head Librarian John
Thomson had initiated a campaign to raise the funds
to purchase a site and erect a building in 1894. After
much lobbying, in 1897 Philadelphia voters
approved a referendum for a municipal loan that
included "one million dollars for library site and building: PROVIDED, Not
more than one million dollars shall be expended by the City in payment of site
and erection of building." Over the next several years, a library committee
charged with erecting a central library building considered numerous sites in
downtown Philadelphia including Logan Square and the old U.S. Mint
Building, but none was deemed appropriate. In 1902, it solicited "sealed
proposals" for a site in local newspapers. Myriad submissions poured into the
Library, including one that offered to demolish the Academy of Music to create
a site, but the committee rejected all offers and began again the quest for an
appropriate location. The next year, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, a
wealthy benefactor of libraries, donated $1.5 million to the Free Library to
erect 30 branch library buildings, initiating a library building boom and
distracting library officials from their quest to erect a main building. In 1905,
library officials returned to their search for a site, but, by the end of the
decade, had not yet selected a permanent home for the central library. In late
1910, the Free Library abandoned its inadequate Chestnut Street quarters for
the College of Physicians building at Thirteenth and Locust Streets. Much
more suited to a library, the stately building served until 1927. Yet, despite the
improved accommodations, Philadelphians longed for a central library building
designed specifically for library purposes.
