Architects Edward L. Tilton and Alfred Morton Githens raised this library at 10 East 10th Street in Wilmington, Delaware. This building sits in the Rodney Square Historic District and today bears the distinction of receiving the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Its story reaches back: the Wilmington Library Company was founded in 1788, and originally a private lending library evolved into the free public Wilmington Institute.
The present library was built on the site of the First Presbyterian Church, after the church relocated, and on what was once its cemetery. Architects Edward L. Tilton and Alfred Morton Githens designed the library, and the building rose between 1921 and 1923; the interior was altered later, from 1969 to 1971. A small human detail survives in the record: a book truck was photographed outside the library in 1929.
The library remains an active civic stage—Al Roker and his daughter were speakers there in 2024, and a scheduled appearance by Michael Vick in February 2025 drew controversy. Picture Al Roker speaking here in 2024, and follow the buildings and public life of Rodney Square.