The Ridge Historical Society
National Library Week – Mount Greenwood and Beverly Libraries
By Carol Flynn
Wrapping up National Library Week, the other two libraries on the Ridge, Mount Greenwood and Beverly, are much more recent additions.
Mount Greenwood annexed to the City of Chicago in 1927. Its early years were served by the Walker Branch Library in Morgan Park.
The population continued to grow, however, and in 1960, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) opened a sub-branch of a library in a store front in Mount Greenwood that was open for five hours per day.
In 1964, the CPL opened a full branch in a one-story building, a storefront at 10961 S. Kedzie Avenue. At the time, the CPL was finding it more economical to rent and adapt store fronts for libraries than to build new buildings. This branch consisted of reading rooms for adults and children, but no meeting or display rooms were available. The branch was very busy, and offered Saturday story hours and summer reading programs.
In 1991, Mount Greenwood received a newly built library, the one now in use at 11010 S. Kedzie.
The Beverly Branch Library also started as a storefront library to serve the Beverly and Brainerd areas, replacing a mobile library traveling unit that visited various locations. For instance, on October 22, 1961, the local newspaper announced the mobile library would be stationed at 95th and Charles Streets from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
In 1969, the CPL rented a vacant storefront at 2114-16 West 95th Street that was renovated into a library, with 30,000 newly purchased books. When the library finally opened its doors in May of 1970, over 4,000 books and other materials were borrowed in the first three days. In about a decade, the library outgrew this building. The location is now Top Notch Beefburgers.
The Beverly library became part of local folklore when it moved into an old funeral parlor in 1981. The CPL secured the existing building at 2121 West 95th Street to renovate into a new Beverly Branch Library. For decades, this building was the Beverly Chapel, then Lain and Son, funeral home. The renovations cost about $1.5 million, and the library opened in the spring of 1981.
On June 8, 2009, a newly built Beverly Branch Library, the one in use today, opened at 1962 West 95th Street. According to CPL, the branch features environmentally sustainable construction as determined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.