Hours: Monday: 9am - 9pm | Tuesday: 9am - 6pm
Wednesday: 12 -9pm | Thursday: 10am - 6pm
Friday - Saturday: 10am - 5pm
Sunday - Closed

Phone: 434.296.5544
Fax: 434.295.8737
contact Gordon Avenue Library

Jump to: Adult Programs | Kids Programs | Teen Programs | Volunteer!

Programs for Adults:

Connecting @ Your Library

Learn how to use computers and navigate the Internet. FREE classes. Call 296.5544 to register. Library card required.

Connecting @ Your Library

BASIC COMPUTER SKILLS

November 30, 2009
7:00 pm

Connecting @ Your Library

USING COMPUTER SOFTWARE

December 02, 2009
7:00 pm

Connecting @ Your Library

GOING ONLINE

December 07, 2009
7:00 pm

Connecting @ Your Library

ONLINE JOB SEARCHING AND APPLICATIONS

December 09, 2009
7:00 pm

Live Poets Society

The Live Poets Society meets the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Come and share original poetry, or just listen.

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

Meets at 10am on the first and third Fridays of each month to discuss literary classics. The group meets from September to May. For further information, call Tod Oliver (434) 296-4041.

Want to see what we've already read? Try Searching the calendar.

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster

November 20, 2009
10:00 am

A strong-willed and intelligent woman refuses to allow the pretensions of her husband's smug English family to ruin her life. Check the Catalog

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

TOYS IN THE ATTIC by Lillian Hellman

December 04, 2009
10:00 am

Saga of family life that includes a Southern man obsessed with grandiose dreams.
Check the Catalog

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

THE BEGINNING OF SPRING by Penelope Fitzgerald

January 08, 2010
10:00 am

Nellie Reed disappears from her home at 22 Lipka Street, and her husband Frank - suspecting she has returned to England - must raise their three young children with the help of beautiful Lisa Ivanovna. Check the Catalog

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

AN ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER READER by Isaac Bashevis Singer

January 22, 2010
10:00 am

Discussion of the short stories: "Gimpel the Fool," "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy," and "A friend of Kafka."

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather

February 05, 2010
10:00 am

In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour becomes Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico, and over the next forty years he faces the lawlessness and loneliness of the frontier as he tries to spread his faith.
Check the Catalog

The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA by William Shakespeare

February 19, 2010
10:00 am

A magnificent drama of love and war, this riveting tragedy presents one of Shakespeare's greatest female characters—the seductive, cunning Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman leader Mark Antony who is a man torn between pleasure and virtue, between an empire and love.
Check the Catalog

The Wednesday Night Book Group

This group meets at 7:30 pm, the second Wednesday of each month to share insights on a variety of classic and contemporary fiction.

Want to see what we've already read? Try Searching the calendar.

History of Gordon Avenue

The Gordon Avenue Library opened for public service on November 19, 1966. It was the McIntire Library’s first major addition built expressly for library purposes since 1921. The construction was funded jointly by the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, which had been contributing to the operation of the Bookmobile since 1946 and had joined smaller branches in Scottsville (1960) and Crozet (1964) to the city’s system.

This new branch was sorely needed to serve a growing population west of the city, to ease crowded conditions at the McIntire Library (which occupied the building now housing the Albemarle County Historical Society), and to provide a headquarters for the Bookmobile operations.

Gordon Avenue Library

Designed by the architectural firm of J. Russell Bailey in Orange, Virginia, the two-story red-brick trim 12,384 square foot building was designed to hold 25,000 volumes (with an additional 10,000 in the Bookmobile "garage" downstairs), seated 38 in the Adult Room and 26 in the Children’s Room and boasted three public meeting rooms, seating 134 in all.

The Perry Foundation donated the site. Forty-five percent of the construction costs or $120,262 was provided by Federal Library Aid through the Commonwealth. Charlottesville and Albemarle County appropriated $75,000 each. Additional funds were donated by individuals and groups, notably the America Association of University Women, who helped equip the meeting rooms, and the Friends of the Library who purchased a film projector and screen.

The Seventies & Eighties: A Time of Growth

Gordon Avenue interior

During its first full year of operation, Gordon Avenue was open for 48 hours per week and circulated 49,748 volumes. The staff of five included three professionals, a library clerk and a janitor. The branch experienced remarkable growth in the 1970’s. By 1975, Gordon Avenue offered 73 hours of service a week (5 hours on Sunday).

When the new Central Library opened in May 1981, Sunday hours were dropped at the branch, and budget cuts in 1982 made further cuts necessary. The book collection continued to grow, however, and by 1988 the library had squeezed in 54,000 volumes, twice its designed capacity, and had to reduce seating by a third. The South Room, third of the public meeting spaces, and the Bookmobile area were given to the Friends of the Library in 1984 for storage and sales space for their remarkably successful annual book sales. Circulation continued to rise, however, and in 1987/88, the first year of the automated catalog, 174,732 books were checked out.

The Nineties and Beyond

Gordon Avenue Children's program

With the opening of the Northside Branch in 1991, Gordon Avenue lost its role as the largest branch, but it has retained its reputation as a friendly accessible neighborhood library. Programs for children are varied and well-attended, and the strong collection and relative flexibility of a smaller branch allow for innovative programming. An art program in cooperation with the Bayly Museum in the 1980’s; a rental library to allow quick access to the most popular books; the African-American collection, named for Roland Beauford, an original staff member; and the first public computer workstation in a branch are some of the more successful initiatives at Gordon Avenue.

Presently, five full-time and two part-time staff members serve the public for 53 hours per week. The attractive foliage put in on the grounds by volunteers symbolize the branch today— bright and peaceful.