History:

On February 27, 1927, the members of the Middleton Progressive Women’s Club start a library by donating a shelf’s worth of books, which are made available at the Burmeister-Kruse Department Store, located at the northwest corner of Hubbard and Parmenter.

In 1930, the Middleton village board offers use of a second-story room in the village hall. Before the end of the decade, the library expands into an adjacent room to accommodate an expanding collection.

By 1948, there was another space crunch. The library moves to a large room on the first floor of the village hall.

In 1958, needing more space than the village hall can spare, the library moves to a larger room in the Lubcke Building (formerly the Elk’s Hotel) located on the northeast corner of Hubbard and Parmenter.

In 1964, construction of a new city hall includes 2,200 square feet for the library. The City of Middleton takes over the full operation and financial support of the library. Middleton joins the Dane County Library Service in 1966.

An addition to city hall provides an additional 3,300 square feet of space for the library in 1974. Middleton goes online with a shared computerized circulation system in 1985.

The library finally has its own space in 1990, and opens March 26. [32,000 square feet on two levels, with most of the lower level unfinished, total cost $1.8 million.] More than 1,000 people visit the library during its first two hours of operation. In 1994 an online public access computer catalog is introduced

On March 1, 2004, the library opens for business in an expanded, completely renovated, and fully occupied 10,000 square feet of space.