The communities around the school, located on Earlington Road, were not excited at the prospect of losing open space fields and the increase in traffic a library could bring. In late 2017, with architectural plans in place and work set to begin in the summer of 2018, what one commissioner called a “godsend” appeared -the Haverford School District agreed to give the township the old Brookline School for $1, a potential site for a new library building and one which included plenty of parking on site. Township officials had pledged to spend over $6 million on the renovation of the existing building in recent years.

During tropical storm Isaias this summer, the basement flooded, adding to the building’s 2020 woes. The last major improvement was an addition in the 1970s second-floor improvements were done in the ’90s. Located in a historic bank built in 1926, it is crowded in a developed section of town with only 17 parking spots. While many township residents like the library’s location, in the “academic corridor” just blocks from the middle and high school, residents in the further reaches of town dislike it for one reason – the lack of parking. “Work on planning the renovations has been on and off several times.” Obviously during that time, much has transpired,” said Phil Goldsmith, president of the Board of Trustees for the Haverford Township Free Library, as he spoke to at the commissioners meeting over the video program Zoom. “The commissioners voted six years ago this month, September 8, 2014, to provide funding for the renovation of the existing library.

HAVERFORD -After a year-long flirtation with the idea of building a new library at the old Brookline School, township commissioners voted Monday to keep the township-supported facility at its present location on Darby Road and move forward with a $12 million dollar renovation to the existing building.

Haverford township free library