1910-1919

Construction of Weston Public Library, summer 1914

Weston Public Library Association (not free) continued to operate in 1910 and 1911. Its board established a children's department, eliminated age limits, allowed free access to the shelves and adopted the Dewey Decimal Classification and Cutter schemes.

Led by Joseph Nason, a barrister who had served on the local library board since 1887, Weston also started a campaign in 1911 to secure a Carnegie grant to build a new library for the village. Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) was one of the wealthiest industrialists of his day. His best known philanthropy was libraries, and from 1883 to 1917, he and, after 1911, the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave more than $56 million to build 2,509 public libraries worldwide, including ten in what is now Toronto. Toronto’s Carnegie Libraries.

 To meet the grant conditions, a majority of Weston voters agreed on January 1, 1912, to change their “not free” public library association into a rate-supported “free” public library. On May 18, 1912, they voted that the village would provide the building site (by borrowing $2,000) and support by taxation no less than 10 percent the cost of the building for annual maintenance (books and staff).

Correspondence between Weston and Carnegie officials about a grant started in June 1912, and on January 2, 1913, Weston received the good news, that if it would pay for a site and $1,000 for ongoing maintenance, “Carnegie Corporation of New York will be glad to giv Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000) to erect a Free Public Library Building for WESTON.” (The letter used the simplified spelling that Carnegie advocated.)

In August 1913, building plans were approved by the Carnegie Corporation, and the purchase of a 60- by 140-foot site (for $1,950) at the northeast corner of King Street and today’s Weston Road was registered. Excavation started on April 8, 1914.

The prime consultants of Weston’s new library were Lindsay & Brydon, Architects (Peter White Lindsay,was Weston resident); George Sainsbury, Builder and Contractor (his business was on Coulter Avenue, Weston); Robert McCausland Limited (stained glass windows);Italian Mosaic and Marble Company of Canada (mosaics); Sanitary Floor Co.; Kent-McClain Ltd. (book cases) and F. C. Henderson (electric lighting).

Weston Public Library opened in its new home on Tuesday evening, December 29, 1914. The library was completed in 1915, and settled into becoming an important town service. (Weston became a town that year with a population of 2,186 residents.) Between 1912, when the free public library was established, and 1919, Weston Public Library saw collections increase 39 percent (from 3,514 to 4,857 volumes) and circulation rise 156 percent (from 8,831 to 22,619 items). By 1919, the library had 1,311 members, more than half of Weston’s population of 2,495.