In 1928 the City Librarian suggested that further branch libraries be established in some of Wellington’s suburbs, a trend first begun in 1902 with the founding of Newtown Library. This plea led to the establishment of the Miramar, Lyall Bay and Wadestown libraries (and a small branch in the Ngaio Town Hall) but then development stopped.
Khandallah, which had been included on the list, missed out, despite the efforts of the Khandallah Progressive Association (KPA), which consistently lobbied for this facility. The Wellington City Council did in fact vote money for a library in 1936 and investigated suitable sites but a ratepayer loan poll rejected the proposal and it was shelved.
In 1943 KPA presented the WCC with a petition signed by 1292 Khandallah residents requesting a local library. Fortunes had changed, and in 1944 a poll of ratepayers voted to continue the general library construction work and a loan of £30,000 was raised to fund the building of more libraries, among them Khandallah. A site was bought in Ganges Road in 1944, and plans were drawn up. Due to what was described as ‘building restrictions’ – the result of World War II related exigencies – work did not begin immediately. In fact it was some years before construction started. After WWII the council even considered borrowing steel army huts as a temporary measure.
In 1947, after some local agitation, a temporary library opened at 8 Ganges Road in one half of what had been a domestic dwelling. The local Plunket Society occupied the other half. This library was stocked with books by the mobile library when it was operating. Another loan of £15,000 was raised in 1950 to facilitate more library construction and half of that amount was allocated to the Khandallah Library.
Although the City Engineer designed the building in 1951, construction did not start for a further two years. The tender of L.E. Borrell (£7,139) was accepted in December that year. The interior was essentially divided into two, with the adult’s section on one side and the children’s on the other, with a circular issues desk in the middle. The librarian’s office was located behind the desk. The old dwelling survived behind the new library, and continued to be used by the Plunket Society.
The building was opened on 27 August 1953. A significant feature of the library was that, although most of the stock came from the central library, a fund for book purchase was set up in the memory of historian and bibliophile, Fanny Irvine-Smith. Irvine-Smith lived in Simla Crescent, and had worked hard to establish the library; she died in 1949, before work on the building had even begun.
Strikingly modern for the time, the building continued the popularity of the temporary branch library and maintained the pace of development of the city’s library network. In 1989 when closure was mooted by the WCC as a cost-cutting exercise, Khandallah residents presented a large petition to the mayor, Jim Belich, who promised to retain the facility. Similar rumours about closure in the early 1990s did not eventuate.
Alterations to the interior layout were made in 1998, which involved installing new custom-wood shelves and carpeting over the parquet floor (which survives underneath). The building remains in use as a library to this day.
