Houston library to permanently close Montrose branch due to ‘safety concerns’

The Montrose branch of the Houston Public Library is closing, effective immediately, according to an email the library’s Executive Director Rhea Lawson sent to the system’s entire staff Wednesday afternoon.

The move comes one day after the Houston Landing published a story detailing the decline of the branch , known as the Eleanor Freed Library.

“After careful consideration and assessment of the various challenges, we have concluded that it is in the best interest and safety to cease operations effective immediately,” Lawson wrote in the Wednesday email.

The Montrose branch was still open as of Wednesday afternoon. An employee who answered the phone said the branch’s final day will be Thursday. The book drop will be available through April 4 for returning borrowed materials, the Library posted on its Instagram page .

“I want to emphasize that this decision was not made lightly,” Lawson’s email continues. “In addition to logistical challenges, the building’s condition made it taxing for the Montrose team to navigate daily responsibilities.”

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The Houston Public Library has been aware of the building’s shortcomings for years. In the city’s capital improvement plan for 2014-2017, the library justified a proposed renovation by noting that the branch’s facilities were “tied with three other locations for second-worst neighborhood library.”

Six years later, as the capital plan moved away from what would be the building’s first renovation since 1988 in favor of replacing it with a new location, the project justification noted that “the building currently does not meet the standards of our most modern libraries.”

Construction at the library’s new location is behind schedule. After the Landing’s story published on Tuesday, the library updated its website to show that construction would begin in the first quarter of 2024 .

Previously, the timeline had indicated that construction began in September, which the developer of Montrose Collective, Steve Radom, told the Landing was not actually the case.

“It’s shovel ready,” Radom told the Landing earlier this month. “We just have to get the shovel in the ground.”

He added, “I will tell you this: The delays are not as a result of the space not being ready or the city not having the legal title to the library.”

The library’s statement issued Wednesday evening said that construction has begun.

“Construction is already underway for the new Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library, which will be in the Montrose Collective mixed-use shopping center,” the statement read.

The updated timeline lists the third quarter of this year — between July and September — as the completion date.