1916 – Carnegie Library, High Park, Toronto, Canada

One of three similar libraries built by the Toronto Public Library with funds from the Carnegie Trust. Chief Librarian George Locke worked with Eden Smith & Sons “to reproduce some of that Collegiate Grammar School architecture of the time of Edward VIth, and adapted to modern requirements.” High Park Branch opened on October 31, 1916.

“One of its newest structures is the High Park branch, which is typical of the three most recent buildings erected by the Board. The other two, the Wychwood branch, and the library at Kew Beach Gardens, are identical to this building in plan, and vary in elevation only in the material used. While similar in architectural character, they are distinct as a three and represent a departure from the traditional library, both in style and arrangement, being designed after the fashion of the Collegiate Granmar School of the seventeenth century in England.”

The room designated as Assembly Room on the ground floor plan, while available for the purpose of meetings, is principally used as a children’s room, and is similarly furnished to the large room above, with the exception that benches are provided instead of chairs. Both rooms have large stone fireplaces, and the scheme throughout is simple and restful, providing an atnosphere which is conductive to the purpose for which the building is intended.

Construction, November 1917

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