History of the Library

Library service was established in the South End in 1877. The Branch was located in the Mercantile Library Association until 1879 when it was moved to the English High School. In 1904 the Branch relocated to 397 Shawmut Avenue and then again in 1923 to the John J. Williams Municipal Building at Shawmut Avenue and West Brookline Street. On June 7, 1971 the South End Branch Library moved to a new building at its present location, 685 Tremont Street between Rutland Square and West Newton Street, which previously was the site of the Mercantile Library Association.

The current building and the park were designed by the prominent architectural firm of Mitchell/Giurgola, originally from Philadelphia but since established in New York City. It was opened in June 1971. The library was last renovated in 1996 when an elevator was installed.

More recently, in 2007, a group of residents living around the library and its park had become alarmed by the deterioration of the library site and the instances of drive-by shootings at Tremont and West Newton Streets. After several meetings with the Mayor’s Office, the Parks Department, executives from the BPL and city councillors, the Parks Department partnered with the Rutland Square Association to spruce up Library Park. The goals were to make park usage more visible from the streets and buildings surrounding it,  and to begin integrating library functions with park usage by means of sponsoring events and programming in the park.

In keeping with this idea, the BPL solicited a proposal from a private firm, Adaptive Environments, to do an assessment of the South End’s residents to determine what their library needs were. The ideas collected by the assessment would become recommendations for an improved library that would be united visually and functionally with Library Park. The Friends of the South End Library would raise funds privately and publicly to implement the recommendations, and created the official 501C3 organization to prepare for that campaign.

Separately, a architect and supporter of the Friends of the South End Library drew up a partial plan that could serve as a jumping board for a proposal that would visually and functionally integrate library and park, as per below.

The proposed design suggested a way for the library to expand partially into the park by means of a glass, two-story addition; opening the walls on Tremont Street with gallery windows so passers-by can view the exhibits by South End artists on display at the library;  a coffee shop (and/or gift shop) in the library at the West Newton Street corner; study alcoves with windows on the alley behind the library; and putting the main entrance to the library on Tremont Street facing out, next to a reading garden. The building’s expansion into Library Park would be to the edge of the current slate center plaza inside the park, about one-third of the way in. Another feature is to have a separate community meeting room accessible from the street when the library is not in use at night.

The proposal below offers only one of many possibilities that could be pursued as part of a public process to expand and improve the current library to meet the needs of the current residents of the South End. The BPL proposal was not funded and FOSEL did not want to proceed without a partnership with the BPL or the city of Boston. Therein lies the germ of a future history for the South End Library that will be written by its next group of advocates.