Digital Division
210 Washington St
Northfield Public Library
est. 1910
The first chapter of the story of Northfield’s library dates back to 1856, when a group of local women formed a literary society whose profits they used to fund the stocking of a reading room downtown. Their contributions initiated a series of steps that led our library to its status as the thriving community entity that it is today. The library moved into the new Lyceum Building in 1857, and saw its support grow in the years that followed. The early years were not without their challenges and instability, especially as the breakout of the Civil War led to a significant diminishing of funding and interest, and even after the Reading Room Association took charge to right the ship, the library remained financially unstable.
The library eventually moved into the upstairs of the YMCA Building across the street (today the Arts Guild), where it remained until 1910. Desperate for stability, the Northfield Public Library, officially established with tax funding as of 1898, finally found its permanent home when Andrew Carnegie, a Gilded Age giant who made it big in the steel industry, agreed to finance construction of a new building—one of over 2,500 public libraries donated by Carnegie across the globe.
Our Carnegie Library, completed in 1910, has since been an important piece in the downtown, and its central location off 3rd and Division reinstated the library as relevant and at the front of Northfielders’ minds, further enabling it to grow and flourish. A renovation project finished in 1985 that significantly expanded the library’s original bounds. And in 2014, a second renovation went underway, revamping the old structure with a glassy addition on the front and a new layout inside. Today, the library is as relevant and integral to our community as ever, putting on a host of events such as Books and Stars in the summers, Culture Crew movie nights, book group meetings, and concerts.
