Main library, Toledo, photograph

This photograph shows the Main Library building in Toledo, Ohio, located at 325 Michigan Street. Designed by the architectural firm Hahn & Hayes, the Art Deco structure opened in 1940, and its $2 million cost was financed largely by the Works Progress Administration. This building replaced the city's original main library, located at Madison Avenue and Ontario Street, which opened in 1890. That structure was razed in 1940, shortly after the new main library opened. Toledo's public library system has its roots in subscription libraries that charged an annual fee to its members. The Young Men's Association organized the city's first such library in 1838. The nationwide public library movement began during the 1870s, and in 1873 the Toledo city council authorized the purchase of two subscription library collections. This step marked the beginning of the Toledo Public Library. The original main library was Toledo’s only public library until 1917, when Carnegie Foundation financed the construction of branch libraries. By the 1930s, space in the main library was at a premium; within the space of a decade, a new facility became a reality