New Orleans Public Library - History

History

The system began in 1896 as the Fisk Free and Public Library in a building on Lafayette Square. Abijah Fisk was a merchant who, over fifty years earlier, had left his house—at the corner of Iberville and Bourbon Streets—to the city for use as a library. Subsequent donations had resulted in libraries and collections not completely free and open to the citizenry. An 1896 city ordinance proposed by Mayor John Fitzpatrick combined the Fisk collection with a newer municipal library. It eventually became known as the New Orleans Public Library.

A turn of the 19th to 20th century donation of $50,000 from businessman Simon Hernsheim allowed the library to begin building a significant collection. In 1902 the city received $250,000 from Andrew Carnegie to build a new main library and three branches. By 1908, the new main library was open at Lee Circle, and branches were open on Royal Street at Frenchmen Street the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, on Pelican Avenue in Algiers, and on Napoleon Avenue near Magazine Street Uptown.

By 2005, NOPL had a dozen branches in addition to a newer (1960) main library on Loyola Avenue. The branches included Algiers and Napoleon, mentioned above, although renamed.