Update: Thank you for your comments and excitement over the new South Philadelphia Library. We regret the error of leaving out the address and location of the library. This blog post has now been updated with the South Philadelphia Library address and location. We hope to see you there soon! - admin
 

This past Saturday, together with the other partners of the recently opened South Philadelphia Community Health and Literacy Center—the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the City of Philadelphia’s Health Center 2, and the DiSilvestro Recreation Center—South Philadelphia Library held a celebratory neighborhood block party, welcoming neighborhood friends young and old to enjoy rides, games, face painting, music, and entertainment on its surrounding streets. Community members also had the opportunity to explore the library’s new home.

South Philadelphia Library, located at 1700 S. Broad Street (corner of Broad and Morris Sts.), is the first of five pilot neighborhood libraries to be reimagined and reshaped to meet the changing needs of today’s library customers as part of the Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries Initiative. With 12,000 square feet of state-of-the-art space, it includes a Community Health Resource Center with staff trained by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Public Health Initiatives. The new space also houses a "living room" area where customers can gather with friends, engage in library programs, and interact in a warm environment. On display in the Children’s Library is a mural by renowned late author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The only surviving Sendak mural, it has been on display at the Rosenbach for nearly five years. It will have a new life at the library, which also includes a teen space, a Pre-K Zone, a computer lab, and updated study rooms.

The Free Library is especially grateful to those who have helped fund new spaces and programmatic initiatives at this location:

• The Cannuscio Rader Family Foundation, which established a Community Health Innovation Fund for the Library
• The Sheller Family Foundation, for funding the Stephen and Sandra Sheller Common
• The Patchwork Foundation and the Rauch family, for funding the Frances and Stewart Rauch Children’s Library
• Nina and Larry Chertoff, who donated the Maurice Sendak mural, in loving memory of Roslyn and Lionel Chertoff and Eugene Glynn

Stay tuned for upcoming programming at South Philadelphia Library and come visit its incredible new space at 1700 S. Broad Street (at Morris) soon!