The Providence Public Library Celebrates 150 Years as a Free Resource

The library’s original home in the Butler Exchange Building. Photography courtesy of the Providence Public Library

What’s your earliest memory of the library?

For generations of Rhode Islanders, it’s walking up to the grand stone building on Empire Street in Providence and getting lost inside its antique reading rooms and meandering stacks.

The Providence Public Library is marking 150 years serving the city and all of Rhode Island. The library celebrated its official birthday on April 7, during National Library Week.

“We were chartered not once, but twice,” explains Jack Martin, executive director of PPL. 

The library raises money for an addition to the current building in 1931. Photography courtesy of the Providence Public Library

After its initial charter as the Free Public Library, Art Gallery and Museum of Natural History in 1874, the library was rechartered as the Providence Public Library the following year. In 1878, it opened its first location on the second floor of the Butler Exchange Building (roughly where Kennedy Plaza is today) with 10,307 volumes.

Now the library holds more than 350,000 items ranging from ancient cuneiform tablets to The Providence Journal archives to the world’s second-largest collection of whaling logs. As a nonprofit organization, the library also strives to be a free learning university offering dozens of workshops, classes and resources in English literacy, STEM, small business ownership and other hands-on skills every year.

“On the one end, we have these extraordinary special collections, and on the other end, we help people address these basic human needs,” says Elizabeth Debs, member and past chair of the board of trustees.

“As the gaps get bigger, we have to step up more,” she adds.

Women leaving the library in 1943. Photography courtesy of the Providence Public Library

Unlike most public libraries, PPL receives 80 percent of its funding from private donations and is operated by a private board of trustees. Martin describes the library as a “safe space” where people of all backgrounds can find resources and connect over a shared love of knowledge.

“It’s people from all walks of life coming in,” he says.

In 2018, the library began a $25 million renovation that includes new teen and workshop spaces, redesigned stacks and special collections, and a grand atrium staircase. The new design, Debs says, offers a more accessible space for patrons. Foot traffic has increased in recent years, and visitors can even stop into CHOP, the restaurant and coffee shop run by the Genesis Center on the first floor.

“I think it’s more relevant than it ever was,” she says. “It’s a place where individual curiosity can be answered and explored.”

The Nicholson Whaling Collection on display in the Reading Room. Photography courtesy of the Providence Public Library

For Martin, it’s more than just a place to oversee books. He met his husband while working at the library. His husband, then a reporter on assignment for the Narragansett Times, was visiting to research the fishing industry. For the 150th anniversary, patrons are invited to share their own PPL stories by visiting the library’s website.

“It doesn’t matter what you believe or who you want to be in charge, we are here for you,” Martin says. provlib.org/150-anniversary

The Children’s Department in 1925. Photography courtesy of the Providence Public Library

By the Numbers

1878 — Year the library opened

10,307 — Volumes in the original collection

350,000 — plus Materials in the collection now

100,000 — plus In-person visitors in 2024

c. 2,000 BCE — Age of the oldest materials

50-plus — Countries represented by the library’s ESL and citizenship students

160 — Story times annually

2,240,331 — Total resources used by patrons in 2024