Where was Colorado’s first public library? Here’s what we found

By Mike Lamp
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4min 26sec
Courtesy of Longmont Pioneers Museum.
Library Hall, the large building left center, was built in 1871, and served as Longmont’s first school, town hall, library and community center. It was paid for and partly furnished by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of New York, for whom the park, one block north, was named. Today it is an apartment house on Pratt St. The wood frame building has intersecting gable roofs, entry vestibule and a belltower. Fences surround it and the other wood frame residences nearby.

Courtesy of Longmont Museum.

Children in front of the Longmont Library Hall, 1896.
Longmont Museum archives

  • The Longmont Library Hall in 1871.
  • Library Hall335 Pratt Street
    Library Hall 335 Pratt Street

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