History of the Library

Kingston has had a lending library since 1812. While the city's first library collections were provided by private citizens, anyone could borrow books for a small fee. 

In 1834, when the Kingston Mechanics Institute was established, it absorbed the Kingston Library and was housed over a drugstore at Montreal Street, close to the intersection with Princess Street. The Mechanics Institute Library made several moves during the 1800s: from above a confectionery store, to a former inn and coach station (formerly Vandervoort's General Store), to an upper apartment at 21 Montreal Street. 

By the time it took up residence in an empty butcher shop in 1911, it had already been listed in the Kingston City Directory as the Kingston Public Library. One more move – to the Milk Trust Building at the corner of Brock and Bagot Street – brought the library to its home from 1925 until the construction of a new building at Johnson and Bagot, which became the library's Central Branch in 1978.This building adjoins the former residence of Bishop Alexander Macdonnell (later the Notre Dame Convent), a limestone structure built circa 1812.

The Kingscourt Branch was added in 1959 and the Calvin Park Branch in 1966, bringing the urban system to a total of three locations. 

Public Library service in Frontenac County dates to the earlier 1900s. The passing of the Public Libraries Act in 1895 was followed by the creation of a library in Sydenham in 1903. Before the Frontenac County Library system was established in 1969, Pittsburgh and Kingston Townships received a rotating supply of books from the Kingston Public Library, and, as a “remote area,” Wolfe Island received shipments of books from the Travelling Library Service in Toronto. 

Arden, Sharbot Lake, Hartington, Cloyne and Sydenham joined the new County library system in 1969, followed by Storrington in 1970, Barriefield in 1971, and Mountain Grove in 1972. Growth continued during the 1970s, as Kingston Township Branch opened on Days Road in 1974, followed by the Ompah Branch in 1977, and Parham Branch in 1979. The Hartington and Storrington branches moved to their current locations in 1982, and branches were opened on Howe and Wolfe Island in 1984 and Plevna in 1986. In December 1997, the newly built Isabel Turner Branch opened its doors, replacing the branch on Days Road. 

1998 saw the province-wide municipal amalgamation which joined the Kingston Public Library to the Frontenac County Library, creating the 17-branch Kingston Frontenac Public Library. 

The Calvin Park Branch, which first opened in 1966, re-opened in September 2009 in a beautiful new building on the same site. 

The Ompah Branch, located in the Township of North Frontenac, closed permanently in 2011 and the hours of operation for the neighbouring Plevna Branch increased.

The Parham Branch, originally located in a portable space behind the Hinchinbrooke Public School closed on October 17, 2015 and re-opened on May 12, 2016 adjacent to the new fire station on Wagarville Road. 

The Sydenham Branch opened in 2011 and the Mountain Grove Branch moved to its current location in 2017.  

In 2017, the Kingscourt Branch closed after fifty-eight years of service, making way for the opening of the new Rideau Heights Branch on April 21, 2018. 

The Central Branch closed in late-November 2016 for extensive renovations and re-opened on March 23, 2019 to great excitement. 

The Isabel Turner Branch closed for renovations in October 2024 and the temporary Cataraqui Centre Branch opened in November 2024.