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Gordon Avenue Library

Gordon LibraryHours
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:

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

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 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.
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The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

FAREWELL TO ARMS A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway

March 19, 2010
10:00 am

An American's love for an English nurse during the First World War ends in tragedy.
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The Literary Masterpiece Book Group

THE RED AND THE BLACK by Stendhal

April 02, 2010
10:00 am

Stendhal’s masterpiece is the story a young dreamer from the provinces, fueled by Napoleonic ideals, whose desire to make his fortune sets in motion events both mesmerizing and tragic. Stendhal weaves together the social life and fraught political intrigues of post–Napoleonic France, bringing that world to unforgettable, full-color life. His portrait of Julien Sorel and early-nineteenth-century France remains an unsurpassed creation, one that brilliantly anticipates modern literature.
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Future Readings:

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.

The Wednesday Night Book Group

GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson

February 10, 2010
7:30 pm

40 years after the disappearance of Harriet Vanger from the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family, her octogenarian uncle hires journalist Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander, an unconventional young hacker, to investigate.
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The Wednesday Night Book Group

my father's tearsA LESSON BEFORE DYING by Ernest J. Gaines
THE BIG READ

March 10, 2010
7:30 pm

The story of two African American men struggling to attain manhood in a prejudiced society, the tale is set in Bayonne, La. in the late 1940s. It concerns Jefferson, a mentally slow, barely literate young man, who, though an innocent bystander to a shootout between a white store owner and two black robbers, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death, and the sophisticated, educated man who comes to his aid. Check the Catalog arrow

The Wednesday Night Book Group

OLIVE KITTERIDGEOLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout

April 14, 2010
7:30 pm

The world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son.
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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
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
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
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.