Welcome to our Digital Heritage collection!

The Melrose Public Library's Digital Heritage collection presents historical photographs, postcards, yearbooks, books and more relating to the history of our community.

Melrose is a small suburban community located approximately seven miles north of Boston with a geographic area of 4.76 square miles and a population of 28,150 people. Settled in the 18th century, the area was known as Pond Feilde after its central body of water, now called Ell Pond. Initially part of colonial Charlestown and then Malden, Melrose was incorporated as a town in 1850 and adopted a city charter in 1900. Melrose has a city government of a mayor and city
council.

The Melrose Public Library was founded at a Town Meeting on March 27, 1871. The library inhabited several temporary homes over the next several years until the construction of its permanent building on West Emerson Street - thanks in part to a substantial donation by Andrew Carnegie.

The new building opened on April 15, 1904. An addition was added in 1963, and in 1990, major improvements were made to the library.

The next 30 years were times of change and growth in library services and in Melrose. In January 2017, an application was submitted to the Massachusetts Library Board of Commissioners for a full-building restoration/construction project. In November 2022 construction on the building began. This exciting next chapter for the Melrose Public Library is expected to be complete in 2024.

Featured Exhibit

First 150 Years of the Melrose Public Library

March 27, 2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Melrose Public Library. The library’s beginnings were at a town meeting where three trustees were appointed to establish a “public library and reading room” and a vote was passed to allocate the Dog Tax to fund the library. The library had several homes prior to its present-day location (and size) on West Emerson Street.