Knoxville Branch Library

About Us:
 
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Knoxville, presently located at 400 Brownsville Road, serves the communities of Knoxville, Mount Oliver, Beltzhoover, St. Clair Village, Arlington, Arlington Heights, Bon Air and Allentown.

According to the 1938 Knoxville Borough history published by the Pittsburgh Women's Library Club of Knoxville, a library facility in Knoxville dates back to 1899 when a subscription (fee) library was established by the James F. Grimes family. Mr. Grimes, who was General Manager of the Knoxville Land Improvement Company, created the library by purchasing the books and newspapers of the Mercantile Library, located at Penn Avenue and Sixth Street, and moving them to a school building that would later become the Rochelle School annex. Mr. H. M. Graham became the first librarian and continued in the position until his death, when the work was taken over by Miss Helen Grimes (daughter of James F. Grimes). It was Miss Grimes who established Knoxville's first library children's department.

In a few years, the library was taken over by the Knoxville School Board for classroom use but was soon packed up and stored in various places. Eventually the library collection was given to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and sold to interested individuals and schools. No library existed in the community for several years after this.

In 1928, local interest was responsible for bringing a combined Knoxville/Carrick branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh back to the Rochelle School annex. In 1930, a separate Carrick Branch Library was established.

A need to vacate the school in 1943 resulted in Knoxville Branch Library moving to 312 Brownsville Road. Twenty years later in 1963, City of Pittsburgh Mayor Joseph M. Barr announced that bids had been accepted to begin construction of a brand new library facility for Knoxville--the first time since 1895 that the City had built a new library building using public funds.

The current CLP-Knoxville building was designed by Paul Scheninker and dedicated on October 21, 1965. The building itself is quite unique and has been written about in professional architectural journals. At the time of its dedication, the library housed approximately 25,000 volumes and the head librarian was Mildred K. Chinik.

Today the library's collection contains over 45,000 items. Nearly 43,000 items were lent to borrowers last year, 1,525 library cards were issued, and over 78,000 questions were answered.