Gardner’s Public Library was housed on City Hall Avenue from 1978 until we moved to our new location. Maintenance problems and lack of space initiated a need for a new location by the end of the century.

The City Hall Avenue location was the first time the Library was unified under one roof since the Library opened its doors at its Pearl Street location (now the Gardner Museum) on February 4, 1886. (In the early 1900s branches were located at various locations around the City.) The Pearl Street location was Gardner’s first free public library and the newly constructed building was the result of a determined effort by the Reverend Lawrence Phelps and the generosity of the children of Levi Heywood, Calvin Heywood and Helen R. Greenwood and her husband Alvin M. Greenwood.

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