Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

Scarboro' Centennial Memorial Library

Photos by Alan L Brown - October 2006

On the south side of St. Andrews Road, beside St. Andrew's Church, is this historic library. A Scarborough Historical Society plaque attached to the building has this to say:

Scarborough's first public library, the Scarborough subscription library, was organized at a meeting at St. Andrew's Church on April 7th, 1834, with forty-six members paying a fee of five shillings. Dr. R.D. Hamilton was elected president, W.M. Elliot treasurer, Arch Glendinning secretary, and James A. Thomson librarian. "No book of a seditious, deistical, or licentious character was to be allowed on the shelves on any pretence whatever." In 1878 the library was incorporated as a Mechanics Institute. In 1896 the people of Scarborough marked the 100th anniversary of the settlement of the township by erecting here the Scarboro' Centennial Memorial Library. In 1955 its members sponsored the institution of a free public library for all Scarborough, which continued to operate the old library until the building of the new Bendale branch at Danforth and McCowan Rds. in 1961.

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.760347 -79.251554

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