In January 1869, the manager of the Hastings Mill, J.A. Raymur, started the New London Mechanics Institute, a meeting room and library for mill employees. In March 1869, it was renamed the Hastings Literary Institute, in honour of Rear Admiral the Honourable
George Fowler Hastings. No official records of the Hastings Literary Institute have survived, but it is known that membership was by subscription. The Hastings Literary Institute continued to exist until the Granville area was incorporated as part of the new City of Vancouver on 6 April 1886. Following the
Great Vancouver Fire on 13 June 1886, 400 books from the now-defunct Hastings Literary Institute were donated to the newly established Vancouver Reading Room. In December 1887, the Reading Room opened at 144 West Cordova Street, above the Thomas Dunn and Company hardware store. It was also known as the Vancouver Free Library and the Vancouver Free Reading Room and Library. By the late 1890s, the Free Reading Room and Library in the YMCA Building on West Hastings had become overcrowded. During this period, the American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was giving money to cities and towns to build libraries. In 1901, the City of Vancouver approached Carnegie about donating money for a new library to replace the space in the YMCA Building. was completed in 1903. The building was used as the main branch of the public library until 1957. The Carnegie Branch is currently located in the building. In 1901, American steel magnate,
Andrew Carnegie agreed to donate $50,000 to build a city library if Vancouver would provide free land and $5,000 annually to support its operation. A fight immediately developed between East and West side Vancouver as to who would get the new cultural institution. A public plebiscite fixed the site at Hastings and Westminster (now Main) Streets, next door to the first City Hall. The cornerstone was laid by the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Order on 29 March 1902 and under it were placed Masonic documents, a copy of the city's
Act of Incorporation, lists of various officials and examples of the postage stamps and coins then in use. The building was designed by Vancouver architect George Grant and is in the style of Romanesque Renaissance, with a domed Ionic portico and French mansard roof. Granite for the foundation came from Indian Arm and sandstone for the 10" thick walls came from Gabriola Island. A fantastic marble, spiral staircase was built by Albion Iron Works of Victoria. It cost $2.279 million and 9,888 pounds of steel and iron were used. A large multi-panel stained glass window with 3 smaller windows below was designed and crafted by N.T. Lyon of Toronto. Depicted in the windows are
John Milton,
William Shakespeare,
Robert Burns,
Sir Walter Scott,
Sir Thomas More, and
Edmund Spenser. The 3 small windows were removed in 1958 when the library was converted into the museum. They were missing for many years but were located intact and returned to the building in 1985. Inside was hardwood panelled walls and ceilings and oak floors. The rooms were heated by eight fireplaces. There were special reading rooms for ladies and for children, a chess room, newspaper reading room, picture gallery, lecture hall, and on the third floor the Art, Historical and Scientific Association (now called the Vancouver Museum). The library opened in November 1903. This branch is now primarily used as a community centre for residents of the Downtown East Side neighbourhood. in 1957. The building was used as the Central branch until 1995. The Vancouver Public Library continued to occupy the Hastings and Main site until the opening of a new central library at
750 Burrard Street in 1957. The move from the Carnegie site to the new location at 750 Burrard began in mid-October 1957, and the official opening of the new library was held on 1 November 1957. The library remained at the Burrard building until 22 April 1995, when it closed in preparation for the move to a new location at Library Square (350 West Georgia Street). The central branch opened in
Downtown Vancouver on 26 May 1995 and cost CAD $106.8 million to build. In September 2009, the library cancelled a room booking made by the group
Exit International to hold a workshop by
Philip Nitschke about
assisted suicide. The cancellation came despite months of negotiation between Exit and library administration. The library stated that it had received a legal opinion stating the workshop as described could contravene Canada's Criminal Code, but would not make the opinion public. The workshop was held at
Vancouver's Unitarian Church. "Whatever the reasons of the library were, it's obviously not affecting the decision by the Unitarian Church," Dr. Nitschke said.
David Eby, executive director of the
BC Civil Liberties Association, which failed to get the ban lifted, said "Usually, librarians are our closest allies in this free-speech debate."
City librarians • George Pollay (1887–1890) • James Edwin Machin (1892–1910) •
Robert Waite Douglas, city librarian (1911–1924) • Edgar Stewart Robinson, director (1924–1957) • Peter Grossman, director (1957–1969) • Morton P. Jordan, director (1970–1978) • George C. Wootton, director (1979–1983) • Aileen Tufts, director (1984–1987) • Madge Aalto, director (1988–2003) • Paul Whitney, city librarian (2003–2010) • Sandra Singh, chief librarian (2010–2018) • Christina de Castell, chief librarian (2018–2025) • Ben Hyman, chief librarian & CEO (2025–present) ==Branches==