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Lydia White introduced today’s program speaker…
Sam Boldrick
Florida Dept. Manager
Miami Dade Public Library
101 West Flager Street, Miami, FL 33130
305-375-5023
"History of Library Buildings in Miami Dade County"
A Brief History
The Miami-Dade Public Library System traces its origin to the late 19th century.
In 1894, libraries were organized in the communities of Coconut Grove and Lemon
City. In 1902, the Coconut Grove Library Association provided a structure, and
that same year the Lemon City Library and Improvement Association erected a
building for its library. The City of Miami’s library was founded through the
efforts of the Ladies’ Afternoon Club which later became the Women’s Club of
Miami. Its purpose was “reading and the discussion of literature.”
By 1905, the Club was trying to provide a public reading room for its collection
of books. The Club had no permanent home and for a number of years the reading
room moved from place to place, as often as six times in a single year! Miami
was still a small town with about 4,700 permanent residents.
By 1913, the Miami Women’s Club had its own building located at the corner of
today’s SE Second Avenue and Flagler Street on property donated by Henry
Morrison Flagler. His gift of land for the construction of a clubhouse contained
a proviso that a public reading room be maintained in the building. Reliable
financial support for the library was a continuing problem and in 1915 the Miami
City Commission was convinced of its responsibility to support the library and
$50 each month was allocated to its support. This downtown location was later
sold and the Miami Women’s Club erected its current building at 1737 North
Bayshore Drive in which the Flagler Memorial Library was established.
By 1925, the communities of Coconut Grove and Lemon City had been annexed into
the City of Miami. The first bookmobile was proudly pictured in The Miami
Herald, January 5, 1928. The first public library serving the Black community
was the Dunbar Branch at 2059 NW 6th Court, established March 14, 1938, by the
Friendship Garden Club assisted by the Miami Women’s Club.
While the Dunbar Branch was being used, the Friendship Garden Club and the
Washington Heights Library Association raised part of the funds to build a new
library building. The City of Miami appropriated the remainder of the money to
construct a structure on land donated by Black philanthropist D.A. Dorsey. The
one-story concrete block and stucco building was named the Dorsey Memorial
Library and opened on August 13, 1941, under the supervision of the Miami Public
Library System’s librarian. This was the first public library building owned by
the City of Miami.
The City of Miami now had several community libraries receiving various amounts
of financial support from public funds. In 1942, it was decided to bring all of
these libraries together in a single public library system governed by a Board
of Trustees and administered by a Head Librarian with administrative
headquarters in a new downtown library. A new main library building had been
proposed for Bayfront Park in downtown Miami as early as 1938 but the proposal
did not become a reality until more than a decade later. Miamians eagerly began
using their new library in Bayfront Park on July 2, 1951, even before its formal
dedication on July 27 of that year.
The following years brought a number of new neighborhood libraries and the
closing and consolidation of others. In April 1957, the subscription library in
Coconut Grove became part of the system while eight new branches were
constructed in the next eight years. In December 1965, the City of Miami and
Metropolitan Dade County reached an agreement whereby the City of Miami would
provide public library service to Unincorporated Dade County and to those
municipalities that did not provide their own municipal library service. At this
time two existing municipal libraries, Coral Gables and South Miami, entered
into the agreement with Metropolitan Dade County and were included in the new
public library system. A year later the Miami Springs Library was added to the
system. Library service to the unincorporated area was provided by four
bookmobiles.
On November 1, 1971, the City of Miami transferred its library system to
Metropolitan Dade County which created a new Department of Libraries with a
Director reporting directly to the County Manager. The passage of the “Decade of
Progress” bond issue in November, 1972, included $34.7 million for the
construction of public libraries. While some municipalities elected to continue
providing public library service through their own municipal operations, the
City of Homestead’s public library joined the County system on January 1, 1975.
The Hispanic Branch (Rama Hispanica) serving a primarily Spanish-speaking
clientele opened August 2, 1976, in Little Havana. On July 19, 1985, the new
Main Library of the Miami-Dade Public Library System opened on the Cultural
Plaza adjacent to the new downtown Government Center as headquarters for a
system which had grown to 41 libraries.
August 24, 1992 is a date burned into Dade County’s collective memory. Hurricane
Andrew’s howling winds inflicted significant damage to the library system,
completely devastating Homestead, South Dade Regional, Coral Reef and West
Kendall Regional Libraries. Nearly every library and nearly every employee was
directly affected. Thanks to massive efforts and effective leadership the
library system was rebuilt stronger than ever so that today the Main Library and
its 40 regional and branch libraries (and growing) serve a population of
approximately 2 million with over 800,000 registered card holders.
Future Libraries:
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Virrick Park Branch Library Groundbreaking to be held
Wednesday, August 23rd, 10:30 a.m.
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Kendale Lakes Branch Library Groundbreaking to be held
September 6, 10:00 a.m.
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Golden Glades Branch is the first of ten libraries to be
built as part of the Library System’s comprehensive Capital Plan, will house
in its 7,500 square-foot facility a collection of 22,000 materials and 20
public Internet stations. Budgeted at a construction cost of $2.1 and a
start-cost of $1 million, construction will be completed in Fall of 2006.
To see a picture of the building:
http://www.mdpls.org/info/pdf/newsletter.pdf
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President Linda and Sam
Boldrick |
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