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Lawsuits from private libraries held up the disbursement of the funds until 1894. Meanwhile, the city of Philadelphia opened six branches of a separate institution, the Philadelphia Public Library, beginning in 1892. In March 1894 the first branch of the Free Library was opened at City Hall, and later that year the two institutions merged under the Free Library name. By 1898 the Free Library had the largest circulation in the world, at 1,778,387 volumes.
The Library's headquarters moved to 12th and Chestnut Streets in 1895. In 1906, it was decided that the Library's permanent headquarters should be along the proposed Benjamin Franklin Parkway (then known as the Fairmount Parkway), and Logan Square was chosen as the site in 1910, the same year the Library moved to 13th and Locust Streets. Ground was broken in 1917 and construction began in 1920. The new building was completed in late 1926, and the Free Library of Philadelphia opened for business at its current location on June 2, 1927. | | Description | |
En 1898, elle possédait déjà plus de 1,7 million d'ouvrages. Aujourd'hui, elle contient plus de sept millions d'ouvrages et se divise en 54 annexes présentes dans les divers quartiers. La bibliothèque conserve également plus de six millions de documents divers (cartes, microfilms, photographies, etc.) et compte près de 500 000 utilisateurs réguliers. En 2005, des travaux d'agrandissement de la bibliothèque centrale ont été réalisés et un auditorium de 600 places a été aménagé. Les collections de livres rares conservent plusieurs manuscrits originaux de l'écrivain américain Edgar Allan Poe, qui a vécu à Philadelphie. | | | More pictures | |
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