Beacon Hill Branch Library

Beacon Hill Branch was housed in a number of locations, including a location at 2519 15th Avenue South converted to a library in 1962. It was described as "the poster child for Seattle's worn-out library system", a "crumbling 1920s-era variety store with more books than shelves to hold them". A new library was funded by a "Libraries for All" bond in 1998. The building opened in 2004 and included stone from the same quarry as the downtown Central Library.{{sfn | Williams | 2017 | p=191}}

In 2017, the library underwent a $696,000 renovation to increase the number of electrical outlets for digital devices and add a "laptop bar", install LED lighting, de-clutter the checkout area, and make other improvements for patrons.

Public art installed at the library includes The Dream Ship: Beacon Hill Discovery, a kinetic sculpture atop a spire rising through a hole in the roof at the building's entrance. Other pieces include haiku carved in stones and rain scuppers shaped like ravens' beaks.{{citation|title=Art at the Beacon Hill Branch|publisher=Seattle Public Library|url=http://www.spl.org/locations/beacon-hill-branch/bea-about-the-branch/bea-art-at-the-branch|access-date=2018-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101031416/https://www.spl.org/locations/beacon-hill-branch/bea-about-the-branch/bea-art-at-the-branch|archive-date=2017-11-01|url-status=dead}} These and certain elements of the interior design were called "phony multiculturalism" by a critic for Seattle's The Stranger weekly newspaper. Four years after the opening, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said of another Seattle library design that it "shuns architectural drama" unlike the Beacon Hill and other contemporaries.

{{reflist|refs=

{{citation|newspaper=The Seattle Times|author=Charles E. Brown|title=Here and Now – New Beacon Hill Library|date=July 9, 2004 |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20040709/here09m/new-beacon-hill-library}}

{{citation|title=I Hate the Beacon Hill Library, and You Should Too: A Journey to Seattle's Heart of Darkness|author=Charles Mudede|newspaper=The Stranger|date=April 17, 2013|url=https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/i-hate-the-beacon-hill-library-and-you-should-too/Content?oid=16511281}}

{{citation|date=May 20, 2004|newspaper=Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce|title=Dozens of library projects on tap for Seattle, King County|url=http://www.djc.com/news/ae/11157130.html}}

{{citation|author=Marcus Harrison Green|title=Beacon Hill celebrates grand re-imagining of neighborhood library|newspaper=South Seattle Emerald|date=May 2, 2007|url=https://southseattleemerald.com/2017/05/02/beacon-hill-celebrates-grand-re-imagining-of-neighborhood-library/}}

{{cite web | author=Gene Balk | newspaper=The Seattle Times | title=Seattle libraries get quieter, but digital use booms | date=2016-06-12 | url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-455033822.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118013226/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-455033822.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=2018-11-18 }}

{{citation|title=Beacon Hill library: the "Heart of Darkness"?|date=April 19, 2013 |author=Wendi Dunlap|work=Beacon Hill Blog|url=http://beaconhill.seattle.wa.us/2013/04/19/beacon-hill-library-the-heart-of-darkness/}}

{{citation|title=Turning a page: Seattle Proposition 1, a $196.4 million facelift, would expand and renovate the public library system|author=Byrnes, Susan|newspaper=The Seattle Times|page=A1|date=October 14, 1998|id={{ProQuest|383645176}}}}

{{citation|title=On Architecture: AIA awards for top local designs seem almost backhanded|author=Lawrence Cheek|newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|date=November 24, 2008|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article/On-Architecture-AIA-awards-for-top-local-designs-1292526.php}}

{{historylink|title=Beacon Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library|author=Alan J. Stein |date=December 10, 2000|article=2867}}

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• {{cite book | last=Williams | first=D.B. | title=Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City | publisher=University of Washington Press | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-295-74129-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1VCDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA191 | access-date=2018-01-01}}

{{Commons category|Seattle Public Library Beacon Hill Branch}}

• {{Official website|http://www.spl.org/locations/beacon-hill-branch}}

{{Beacon Hill, Seattle}}

{{Seattle Public Library}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2004 establishments in Washington (state)

Category:Beacon Hill, Seattle

Category:Libraries in Seattle

Category:Library buildings completed in 2004

Category:Public libraries in Washington (state)

Category:Seattle Public Library