While a new Elmhurst library is being built, a temporary library has opened to serve the community at 85-08 51st Avenue, near Broadway in Elmhurst.
The temporary library is across Broadway from the old library, which is currently in demolition to be rebuilt.
The newly built library is anticipated to open at the end of 2013 on the same site as the previous building.
It will be double the size of the old library, featuring four levels for customer service with elevator access to all levels.
Features include separate library areas for adults, children and teens; a large 32-computer Cyber Center for customer use; a new Adult Learner Center; an interior reading atrium; and front and rear community gardens.
In response to requests from the community, “memory features” will preserve some of the library’s legacy.
Original bricks will be used in the new façade. The nostalgic Children’s Room fireplace will be relocated to the new building. There will be a 1906 Memory Wall plus many other acknowledgements of the library’s long history in the community.
The new library will cost $27.8 million.
The original library building in Elmhurst was opened 1906.
Community demand immediately showed the library to be too small, so in 1930, the building was expanded to triple the original size.
Extensive renovations were also done in 1965 and 1980.
A Queens Library representative said in a statement that the library thanks Borough President Helen Marshall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Member Daniel Dromm for funding this new community library.
The temporary library’s hours of service are: Mondays and Fridays, 10 – 6; Tuesdays 1-6; Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10-8; Saturdays 9 – 7, closed on Sundays.
The Adult Learner Center is temporarily in the former gym at St. James, 84-07 Broadway.
In addition to the temporary library, customers are invited to use any of Queens Library’s other locations, a Queens Library representative said in a release.
For more information, visit the Queens Library web site at www.queenslibrary.org or phone 718-990-0700.
