Northville District Library

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Northville District Library Enriching Lives, Inspiring Discovery and Connecting Community. Northville District Library serves the city and township of Northville, Michigan.

NDL is very grateful to have such a dedicated and passionate group of Friends. Our Friends of the Northville District Li...
10/19/2026

NDL is very grateful to have such a dedicated and passionate group of Friends. Our Friends of the Northville District Library are not only avid users of the library, they also manage the Friends Book Cellar (on the lower level) that offers discounted books, audiobooks, and movies to our community. And it takes a lot of work to sort through donations to the Library, cycle items in the Book Cellar, and volunteer at the check out desk.

Our Friends also volunteer their time to organize materials for our monthly Youth Take and Make Craft Kits on top of supporting NDL's collections, services and programs. Some of the programs the Friends sponsor on an annual basis include our Summer Reading Program and the Middle School Battle of the Books. The Friends also sponsor several of the presenters who speak on various educational and historical topics throughout the year for adults.

Thank you to our Friends of The Northville District Library for your many years of dedicated service to NDL and our amazing community!

Pictured is the Board of the Friends of the Northville District Library. The Friends group has many active volunteers within its membership who are not pictured here.

Want to join the Friends? You can easily become a member on our website: https://nvillelib.org/FriendsofNDL

10/19/2026

Books featured in this video:

-Dune by Frank Herbert
-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
-The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
-I am Homeless of This is not My Home by Lorrie Moore
-Our Noble Selves by Late Atkinson
-Ars Poetica by Juliana Sphar

Some people have a lot on their plate. Cathrine has a lot on her book cart. šŸ“šHow many hours do you think it took her to ...
10/15/2026

Some people have a lot on their plate. Cathrine has a lot on her book cart. šŸ“š

How many hours do you think it took her to process all these new childrenā€™s books? (Hint: there are 321 books there).

Sheā€™s just about finished and will be ready for the next arrival! šŸ˜‚šŸ“š

Before 212 W. Cady Street, where was Northvilleā€™s library? Wellā€¦ quite a few places! (We'll focus on the "where," but th...
10/10/2026

Before 212 W. Cady Street, where was Northvilleā€™s library? Wellā€¦ quite a few places! (We'll focus on the "where," but the library's history is actually filled with many changes on various levels)

Since its beginnings in the late 1800s, Northvilleā€™s library has called a downtown building, a former church, City Hall, a shopping center and even the Recreation Building "home."

Some locations lasted decades. Others lasted only a few months. And a couple of those former library buildings are still part of Northville today!

After several movesā€”and years of planningā€”Northville voters approved a new library on West Cady Street in 1994. When it opened on October 6, 1996, it became the first building in Northvilleā€™s library history constructed specifically to be a library.

And another interesting tidbit: the current library overlooks land that was once behind the Lapham homestead, where Mary Laphamā€”the woman who donated the library's first 250 booksā€”grew up. After more than a century and all those moves, the library ultimately found its permanent home very close to where part of its story began.

šŸ‘‰ Swipe through to follow the library from place to place and see if you recognize any of its former homes.

Many special thanks to the vigorous work of Michelle Fecht, Anne Mannisto, and other library staff, supporters, historians, and volunteers through the years for their fastidious records of NDL's history.

Here's a fun view into the past! This is a Northville Library flyer from the 1970s. ;)
10/10/2026

Here's a fun view into the past!

This is a Northville Library flyer from the 1970s. ;)

Do you remember what NDLā€™s lower level looked like before the Friends Community Room and two group study rooms were adde...
10/09/2026

Do you remember what NDLā€™s lower level looked like before the Friends Community Room and two group study rooms were added in 2018? šŸ‘€

Itā€™s amazing how much this space has changedā€”and how much more room it created for our community to meet, learn, study, and spend time together.

Friends of The Northville District Library generously supported this addition!

Did you know that the Northville Library had a temporary home in the Northville Square building at one point? In 1975, ...
10/09/2026

Did you know that the Northville Library had a temporary home in the Northville Square building at one point?

In 1975, moving the Northville library was truly a community effort.

The library left City Hall for a temporary home in the building now known as Northville Square (It used to be called the MAGs, or Michigan Association of Gift Salesmen, building)ā€”and residents turned out to help, pushing carts filled with books across the street to the new location!

Meanwhile, plans were underway for a permanent library on West Cady Street. When federal funding in the form of grants for the project fell through, the community kept looking for a solution.

In 1979, city voters approved funding to expand City Hall with a new 6,500-square-foot library. But before that project was completed, there was one more move to make first: when the lease at Northville Square expired, the library spent four months in the Recreation Buildingā€”todayā€™s Northville Community Center.

The library may have moved around a lot, but Northville kept making room for it. ā¤ļø

Meet Dr. Mary Lapham, one of the most important figures in Northvilleā€™s library history.Her impact began in the late 180...
10/09/2026

Meet Dr. Mary Lapham, one of the most important figures in Northvilleā€™s library history.

Her impact began in the late 1800s when Northville was a village. She chaired Northvilleā€™s Library Committee in 1888 and the Ladiesā€™ Library Association when it incorporated in 1889. She also donated the first 250 books to the Northville Library when it moved to the New Presbyterian School Church.

Her support didnā€™t stop there. Lapham eventually deeded the library building to the Ladiesā€™ Library Association, with the condition that the Northville Womanā€™s Club could continue using it indefinitely.

In 1904, the Ladiesā€™ Library Association officially named the building the Mary E. Lapham Library in her honor. It would serve as Northvilleā€™s village library until 1964.

More than a century later, her commitment to making books and learning available to her community remains an important part of NDLā€™s story. ā¤ļø

This Throwback Thursday, we're featuring one of the many places the Northville Library existed in Northville history:A l...
10/08/2026

This Throwback Thursday, we're featuring one of the many places the Northville Library existed in Northville history:

A long time ago, in 1889, the Northville Library had a temporary location on the second floor of 168 E Main St. McKeand Building!

This building was later known as the Macomber Building and then the Sheehan Building before becoming the J. M. Mead General Store, in its permanent place at Mill Race Historical Village.

Address

212 W Cady Street
Northville, MI
48167

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 9pm
Tuesday 10am - 9pm
Wednesday 10am - 9pm
Thursday 10am - 9pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+12483493020

Website

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