Garfield Park Library - 2502 Shelby Street

Year Built: 1965

Architecture Style: Contemporary

Key Features:

• Skylights

• Stone Construction

• Low Pitch Roof

The library has had two names in its lifetime, Shelby Street Library (1918 thru 1965) and Garfield Park Library (1965 to present).

Before the neighborhood was within city boundaries, this area was farmland and not even considered a suburb. The first library (where the empty Chase Bank building stands across the street) started as the Old Shelby Road School. When the neighborhood was annexed into the city, the building became IPS #34. As the neighborhood grew a new school building was erected a few blocks away and the old building became the kindergarten. One of the two rooms became the first Shelby Street Library. Books were acquired from the public-spirited community together with a library deposit station. Because of a large steel mill at Troy and Shelby, there were many books on metalworking, followed closely by books on cooking, dressmaking, carpentry, travel and religion (reflecting the many churches at the time).

In 1965 a new library building was erected on Park property. The name was changed to the Garfield Park branch when the 2011 remodel project was finished, converting the conference room into a computer lab. Also, skylights and a rain garden reflect exterior changes. It has one of the highest usage rates in the Indianapolis Public Library system.