1959 - Elm Street - 2012.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Jacqueline Reis

COLUMNl THEN AND NOW

WORCESTER - The three buildings in the foreground of the 1959 photo, top, are the former home of the Worcester Public Library on Elm Street. The institution moved to Salem Square in 1964, and the buildings were demolished for an expansion of the municipal garage between Pearl and Elm streets near Main Street.

When the Elm Street library closed, it had been in service for more than 100 years.

"U.S. Sen. George Frisbie Hoar, Dr. Robert H. Goddard, playwright S.N. Behrman, and just about every other being with childhood ties in Worcester passed through its doors," Jack Tubert wrote in The Telegram after visiting the Elm Street library during its last days.

The two owls that were over its entrance are inside the Salem Square library, mounted on walls at the third-floor level over two stairways.

Moving the books, a job that went to School Street Storage & Warehouse Co., involved building an exterior elevator to move books out of storage and closing a sidewalk. A sign on the barricade read, "1,000,000 lbs. of library must cross your sidewalk. Thank You for permitting...