Parkway Central Library
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| Established | June 2, 1927 |
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| Location | 1901 Vine St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Automobile Reference Collection Chamber Music Collection Children's Literature Research Collection Drinker Choral Music Library Early American Children's Books Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music Map Collection Print and Picture Collection Rare Book Collections Sheet Music Collection Theatre Collection |
| Access and use | |
| Population served | 1,560,297 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Siobhan A. Reardon |
| Website | https://libwww.freelibrary.org/locations/parkway-central-library |
Coordinates: 39°57′34″N 75°10′16″W / 39.9595°N 75.1710°W
Parkway Central Library or Central Library is the main public library building and administrative headquarters of the Free Library of Philadelphia system. It is the largest library, and only research library, of 54 library branches in the Free Library system. The library opened on Vine Street, Philadelphia in 1927. Four stories and the ground floor are open to the public. The main entrance steps are on Vine Street, between 19th and 20th Street.
William Pepper secured initial funding through a $225,000 bequest from his wealthy uncle, George S. Pepper and chartered the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1891 as "a general library which shall be free to all". The first public library in Philadelphia was opened in March 1894. The initial library was located in three cramped rooms at City Hall, but moved on February 11 of the following year to the old Concert Hall at 1217-1221 Chestnut Street. Library officials criticized this second facility as "an entirely unsuitable building, where its work is done in unsafe, unsanitary and overcrowded quarters, temporary make-shifts". Fifteen years later the Library was moved again, on December 1, 1910, to the northeast corner of 13th and Locust Streets.
Parkway Central Library had been planned for its current location since 1911; various obstacles, including World War I, held up progress. Construction started in 1917 and was completed in 1927. The grand Beaux-Arts building was designed by Julian Abele, chief designer in the office of prominent Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer. Its design, that of the adjacent Philadelphia Family Court building, and their placement on Logan Circle closely follow that of the Hôtel de Crillon and the Hôtel de la Marine on Paris's Place de la Concorde. In addition to being the main library, the building serves as the system's administrative building. The library opened on June 2, 1927 at its present location on 1901 Vine Street.
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