Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Beaches Branch, Toronto Public Library 1916

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted June, 2007

Here at 2161 Queen Street East in the Beach stands a branch of the Toronto Public Library. Want to borrow a book, a CD, a DVD? You've come to the right place! This 2006 Heritage Toronto plaque beside the front door gives us this information:

Coordinates: 43.670277 -79.298329

Click here for a larger map

Designed in 17th-century English Collegiate style, Beaches Branch by Kew Gardens replaced a storefront library opened in 1914 at the corner of Queen Street East and Hambly Avenue. The new building was one of three nearly identical libraries (together with Wychwood and High Park) built with a $50,000 grant to the Toronto Public Library from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. George Locke, the chief librarian, wanted the three buildings to "bring to the mind of the people of the outlying districts some recollection of their Scottish and English village type of architecture." The Toronto architecture firm Eden Smith and Sons completed the design, "a decided revolt" from the Classical styling of earlier Carnegie libraries. The brick and stone building features an upper floor modelled on a Tudor Gothic great hall. It boasts a soaring hammer-beamed ceiling, a plain stone fireplace, lead-glass casement windows, and a minstrel gallery. The west wing, built when the library was renovated and restored in 2005, replaces this 1980 addition.

Related webpages
Beaches Branch
Carnegie libraries

Other Carnegie Libraries in Toronto
Carnegie Corporation
George Locke
Eden Smith

More Beach neighbourhood plaques
The Beach Hebrew Institute
Community Centre 55
Dr. William D. Young Memorial
Glenn Gould
Kew Williams House 1902
Norway Post Office
Scarboro' Beach Amusement Park
St. John the Baptist, Norway
William Stewart Darling House 1873-1876

More Toronto Public Library Plaques
Dovercourt Branch, Toronto Public Library
Earlscourt Branch, Toronto Public Library
George H. Locke Memorial Branch
High Park Branch, Toronto Public Library
Riverdale Branch, Toronto Public Library
Runnymede Branch, Toronto Public Library
Western Branch, Toronto Public Library
Weston Public Library
Yorkville Branch, Toronto Public Library

More Toronto buildings designed by Eden Smith
Chudleigh
Church of St. John the Evangelist (The Garrison Church)
Church of St. Simon-the-Apostle
Eden Smith House
Riverdale Courts 1913
Saint Thomas's Anglican Church
Spruce Court Apartments 1913
St. Hilda's College
The Studio Building
Wychwood Park

More
Libraries

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted January 25, 2011
Hi I am a student at York University in my second year and was wondering if you know where I could find primary sources about the plaque on the Beaches Library. Thank you
Angela

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