History of the McKim Building: Background

Boston Public Library was founded in 1852. The first Boston Public Library location opened in 1854 in two rooms in the Adams School on Mason Street. Because the Mason Street space was small and poorly lit, a new building was opened at 55 Boylston Street in 1858. It cost $365,000 to build and held 70,000 volumes. This building was demolished in 1899.

By 1880, the Boston Public Library again needed a larger building to accommodate its growing collection of 300.000 volumes. In 1887 architect Charles Follen McKim of the architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White was chosen to design a new building at the corner of Dartmouth Street and Boylston Street. The cornerstone was laid November 28, 1888. The building was completed at a total cost, exclusive of the land, of $2,368,000, in February, 1895 and was opened to the public in March of that year. 

See photographs of the Boston Public Library in 1896.