Dearborn Public Library

The Garden Club of Dearborn, meeting at the home of Mrs. Henry Ford, appoints a committee (consisting of Miss Cara Snow and Mrs. E.R. Bryant) to initiate a movement for the establishment of a public library in Dearborn.

The Village Commission voted at its meeting on October 15, 1919, to decorate a room in the Village Hall to be used for a public library.

Mrs. Henry Ford offers to donate the site on the corner of Michigan and Mason if the Township of Dearborn will vote a bond issue to erect a library building. (March 1920).

A furnished room in the VIllage Hall supplied with thirty-five magazines, opens as a reading room in early March 1921.  High school student, Miss Carrie Carlton, acts as the attendant.

The library continues as a reading room while books are selected and purchased.  The first registrations and circulation of books are made on June 8, 1921.  Mr. Earl E. Hole was the first adult applicant, and Ruth Van Fleet was the first juvenile applicant. 

The Township of Dearborn voted that it shall establish a Free Public Library per Act No. 164 of the Public Acts of 1877 in the annual township election. (April 1922)

Mrs. Henry Ford turns the first sod for the new library on the site at Michigan and Mason.

City Hall Branch opens on the second floor of the municipal building after the consolidation of the cities of Dearborn and Fordson.

The Southeast Branch opens at 2121 Salina.  A significant portion of the cost is furnished through a WPA grant.

Northeast Branch opens with a collection of 1866 books. The location is in a store building at 13114 Warren near Reuter.

The Film Office opens at the Main Library with a staff of 5.

Bookmobile service is added to the Dearborn Public Library.

Ground breaking for Princeton Branch Library.

Princeton Branch opens in West Dearborn with a book collection of 15,000 volumes.  Located at 23950 Princeton at Telegraph, this is the fifth library to be established in Dearborn.