Most Free Library of Philadelphia branches have pretty simple names.
Of the 50+ locations, the overwhelming majority of branches have names that indicate their location — like the Northeast Regional Library in Northeast Philly, the McPherson Square Library in Kensington’s McPherson Square, or Independence Library just a block away from Independence Mall.
But there are exceptions to that pattern — 16 city libraries were named or renamed for notable Philadelphia residents.
Some got their names before they joined the Free Library system, like Queen Memorial Library in Point Breeze, while others, like North Philly’s Lillian Marrero Library, rebranded years after opening.
The branches’ namesakes come from a variety of backgrounds: philanthropists, businessmen, community members who touched people’s lives, notable local government figures. Most of them have died, except in the case of one branch named for the family of a Philly politician, Fumo Family Library.
Who were these library namesakes, and how did their names end up on these public buildings? Read on to find out.
A famous figure
Katharine Drexel Library
The branch at Knights and Fairdale Roads in Northeast Philly is named after a saint.
Katharine Drexel (1858–1955) was a Philadelphia-born heiress and Catholic religious sister. After her father’s death, she continued his philanthropic work, using her inheritance to found schools and churches for African Americans and Native Americans across the country. She also formed an order of religious sisters dedicated to working in Black and Indigenous communities.
The library branch was dedicated to Drexel in 1969. Drexel was canonized in 2000 and became the Catholic Church’s second US-born saint. She’s now recognized as the patron saint of racial justice and philanthropy.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, she did come from the same Drexel family that the West Philly university is named after. The founder and namesake of the institution was her uncle, the banker Anthony Joseph Drexel.
Community leaders and activists
Ramonita G. de Rodriguez Library
Ramonita G. de Rodriguez was a teacher and community leader. Born in Puerto Rico, she moved to the city in 1943 and earned a master’s degree at Temple, according to her obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
In 1947, she became the first ever Puerto Rican teacher in the Philly school system. She eventually rose to the role of supervisor of the Board of Education’s bilingual program. Rodriguez wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News, where she authored a Spanish and English column called “El Camino.” She also founded and led the Puerto Rican Women’s Committee.
Rodriguez died from cancer in 1973 at age 65. Four years later, City Council renamed the 6th and Girard library branch — formerly known as the Girard Avenue Branch — in her honor.
Cecil B. Moore Library
The library branch at Cecil B. Moore and 23rd Streets is named after Cecil B. Moore, a civil rights activist, lawyer, and former City Council member.
Moore was born in Virginia in 1915. He joined the Marines in the 1940s and ended up in Philadelphia once he was transferred to Fort Mifflin in 1947. A few years later, he went to law school at Temple.
Moore went on to become a defense attorney and headed the Philly chapter of the NAACP. He protested workplaces that discriminated against Black employees, held voter registration drives for Black Philadelphians, and pushed for integration and desegregation of institutions such as Girard College. Moore’s outspoken and confrontational approach to civil rights activism, which sometimes caused conflict within the movement, meant that he was often viewed as a controversial figure.
Moore was elected to Philadelphia City Council in 1975, but he didn’t get the chance to finish a full term. He died in office at age 63 in 1979.
In the 1980s, local high school students led a petition to rename Columbia Avenue and the public library on it — formerly called the Columbia Avenue Branch — after Moore. The branch and street were officially renamed in 1987.
Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Library
Born in the late 1920s, Blanche M. Askew Nixon was a Southwest Philly community leader and activist. She was known for her neighborhood improvement efforts and for helping teenagers stay out of gangs.
Nixon held leadership positions in organizations such as the Crisis Intervention Network, Citywide Parents Council, Southwest Interracial Mothers, and the Youth Counseling Center.
She was a beloved and well-known figure in Southwest Philly. She gave out candy and fruit to neighborhood children, according to her obituary in the Inquirer. Southwest Philly teenagers called her “Mom Nixon.”
Nixon was directly involved in projects to improve the Cobbs Creek Library at 59th and Baltimore. The supervisor there told the Inquirer in 1990 that she started starting a garden to reduce loitering on the lawn and spearheaded a mural project that alleviated the branch’s graffiti problems.
Nixon died in 1989. Her neighborhood library branch was renamed in 1990, after community members petitioned city and state legislators to add Nixon’s name to it.
Lillian Marrero Library
The library at 6th and Lehigh, formerly known as the Lehigh Avenue Branch, is named after a beloved librarian who once worked there.
Lillian Marrero was born in 1956 in France and later called Puerto Rico home. She eventually moved to Philly and started working at the Free Library in 1991. Marrero went on to build a reputation as a “beacon” in the North Philly community.
She had a passion for community engagement, helped community members at the Lehigh branch learn English, and supported them in finding housing and jobs. She also partnered with community groups, especially Latino organizations. Marrero set up a computer lab in the library to teach community members how to use the internet.
Marrero worked to keep the library beautiful by sweeping the sidewalks, picking up litter, and planting flowers, bushes, and trees. She also helped raise $25,000 for renovations.
Marrero’s library branch, per her obituary, served a model to others in the country when the American Library Association held its 1999 national convention in Philly. Some credit her with laying early groundwork for libraries as community engagement hubs.
Marrero died of cancer at age 48 in 2005. The branch was renamed after her that same year.
Local officeholders and political leaders
Charles L. Durham Library
Formerly known as the Mantua Branch, the library at 34th and Haverford was renamed in 1995 as an homage to Charles L. Durham.
Durham was a Mantua native and lawyer who spent a long time in politics and public office. Over the course of his life, he served as a Democratic committeemember and ward leader, City Council legal assistant, assistant district attorney, City Councilmember, and Court of Common Pleas judge. Per his obituary, he was also a lawyer for the NAACP during the voter registration drive of 1963 in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
Durham died in 1991. His obituary in the Inquirer described him as someone “marked by unflagging independence,” who “was unruffled and stuck by his convictions” even as he butted heads with party and council colleagues and faced censure for his handling of a high-profile case.
Fumo Family Library
The Fumo Family branch of the Free Library, located at Broad and Porter, was named for the Fumo Family of South Philly when it opened in 1999.
Then-first-term South Philly Democrat Frank DiCicco introduced the bill in City Council that established the library’s name. DiCicco told the Philadelphia Daily News that it was meant to honor former state Senator Vincent Fumo — who served from 1978 to 2008 and was seen as a powerful figure in local and state politics — for obtaining a $50k state grant to repair another library’s heating system, as well as his wife’s work on the library board and his parents’ contributions to the local community.
Ten years after the library opened, Fumo ended up on trial and was found guilty of 137 counts of conspiracy, fraud, tax offenses, and obstruction of justice. He spent four years in prison.
Opinions were mixed amongst South Philly residents in the aftermath of the 2009 conviction, with some calling the senator a “fallen legend” and others standing by his contributions to the community, the Inquirer reported.
Still, the Free Library didn’t have any plans to change the branch’s name in the aftermath of the trial. At the time, a spokesperson told WHYY News the family “had been very generous to the library for many years, and we continue to be appreciative.”
Joseph E. Coleman Northwest Regional Library
The namesake of the regional library at Greene Street and Chelten Avenue in Germantown is Joseph E. Coleman, Philly’s first Black City Council president.
Born in 1922 in Mississippi, Coleman was a chemist and lawyer. He served as a Philadelphia councilmember from 1972 until his retirement in 1992, spending his last 12 years on council as president.
Coleman strengthened the role of City Council in Philadelphia government by making it into a more independent legislative body. He’s also credited with rehabilitating council’s reputation after the Abscam scandal of the 1970s and for bringing more decorum to meetings.
Coleman died in 2000, and the Northwest Regional Library was renamed to honor him in 2002. According to the library’s website, Coleman “worked for the development of the Northwest Regional Library and its location at the corner of Chelten Avenue and Greene Street.”
Charles Santore Library
If you’re familiar with children’s illustrators, the name Charles Santore might ring a bell — a person by that name illustrated editions of classics like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Wizard of Oz. But that’s not who the library at 7th and Carpenter in South Philly is named for.
Charles Santore Library is named after the illustrator’s dad, Charles Santore, Sr. The elder Santore was a Republican ward leader, candy store owner, Water Department employee, founder of a municipal employees union local, and professional boxer.
Santore died in 2002, and a friend of his spearheaded an effort to get the Southwark Library — a branch located near where Santore lived and worked — renamed. City Council approved the proposal, and the branch became known as the Charles Santore branch in 2004.
Lucien E. Blackwell West Philadelphia Regional Library
The West Philadelphia Regional Library bears the name of the West Philly-born politician, Lucien E. Blackwell.
Born in 1923, Blackwell’s pre-politics life included working as a dockworker, (briefly) pursuing a boxing career, being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and leading the Philadelphia local of the International Longshoreman’s Association.
He later went on to serve in the Pa. House of Representatives for two years, Philly City Council for 16 years, and the U.S. House for four years. His obituary in The Inquirer describes him as a firebrand, an advocate for disadvantaged Philadelphians, and a political trailblazer who helped lead the way in establishing political power for Black Philadelphians.
Blackwell died in 2003, and City Council voted later that year to change the name of the West Philadelphia Regional Library branch in his honor. The branch was formally renamed in 2004.
Thomas F. Donatucci, Sr. Library
The library at 20th and Shunk, formerly known as the Passyunk Branch, was named after a South Philly community member and Democratic ward leader named Thomas F. Donatucci, Sr.
Per his obituary, Donatucci led the 26th Ward and served as a state auditor under Auditor General Bob Casey Sr., who later went on to become the governor. He was also a grand knight of the West Philadelphia Knights of Columbus Council, a member of the county Democratic Executive Committee, and a member of the South Philadelphia Lions Club.
Donatucci died in 1970 at age 58. Two of his sons, Ronald and Robert, also ended up pursuing lives in politics and government. Ronald served as Philly’s Register of Wills, and Robert became a state representative. His other son, Thomas Jr., was a business owner.
The Passyunk Branch was renamed for Donatucci in 2004.
David Cohen Ogontz Library
Born in Philly in 1914, David Cohen was a longtime member of City Council who served from 1968 to 1971, and again from 1980 until his death in 2005 at age 90. Before that, he’d been a federal government employee, lawyer, union president, and ward leader.
His obituary in The Philadelphia Daily News described him as “a complicated mix of left-wing New Deal Democrat and dogged ward pol whose causes were the working class, the poor, the union rank-and-file, minorities, in short the groups that have taken it on the chin for years in America.”
First requested by community members in 1961, the library branch at Church Lane and Ogontz Avenue was a “pet project” of Cohen’s, per a letter his wife and chief of staff Florence Cohen wrote to the Inquirer. Local publications wrote that he “fought tirelessly” for the branch and was instrumental in bringing it to fruition.
It ended up being a drawn-out process — the Ogontz Library was in the pipeline for several decades, but only broke ground in 1994. The location opened in 1997, and it was renamed in Cohen’s memory in 2007.
Other Philadelphians
Lovett Memorial Library
Mount Airy’s library at Germantown Avenue and Sedgwick Street dates all the way back to the 1880s.
The Lovett family purchased a 10-acre estate along Germantown Avenue in 1865. Two decades later, according to the Free Library’s website, one of the family members, Louisa Lovett, co-founded the Mount Airy Free Library down the street from where the Lovett branch currently stands.
In 1887, at the site now occupied by Lovett Memorial Library, Charlotte Lovett Bostwick funded the construction of a library with $7,000. She built it as a memorial to her brother, Thomas R. Lovett, who had died in 1875 at age 54. It became part of the Free Library in 1924, and has since been renovated and added to.
Queen Memorial Library
Queen Memorial Library — currently located on Federal Street in Point Breeze between 22nd and 23rd — was originally known in 1907 as the James W. Queen Memorial Library, which was then located in the Hope Presbyterian Church at 33rd and Wharton. It became a Free Library branch in 1912 and has since been relocated twice.
James W. Queen was an optician, businessman, and philanthropist who lived during the 19th century. He ran James W. Queen & Company, an originally Philly-based company that made scientific equipment like microscopes, telescopes, binoculars, gyroscopes, and thermometers.
Widener Library
The Widener branch hasn’t always been at 28th and Lehigh in North Philly — it was first opened at the Widener Mansion on Broad and Girard, and has since moved twice.
The namesake of the building is H. Josephine Widener, the wife of businessman and investor Peter A. B. Widener. Peter — a butcher born in 1834 who started a meat store chain and bought enough street railway stock to control Philly’s whole streetcar system — had the Broad and Girard mansion built in 1887. He transferred the mansion to the library in 1900 in honor of Josephine, who’d died four years earlier.
The mansion was sold in 1946, and the library used the proceeds to buy and renovate a former bank building on Lehigh Avenue so the branch could be relocated there. Almost six decades later, in 2005, the library moved to its current location a few blocks away from the former bank building.
Bushrod Library
The Bushrod Library at Castor Avenue and Stirling Street in Northeast Philly was endowed with funds from Dr. Bushrod Washington James, a homeopathic doctor, eye surgeon, philanthropist, and writer.
Born in 1836, James came from a family of physicians. He attended the Homoeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania and later became an eye surgeon. During the Civil War, he served as a volunteer surgeon on the battlefields at Antietam and Gettysburg, as well as in a Philadelphia army hospital. James held membership and leadership positions in several medical societies and was a prolific writer.
He died in 1903 of pneumonia. James wrote in his will that he wanted a library — called the Bushrod Library — to be founded at his home near Logan Square, according to the Free Library website. Decades after he died, trustees got permission to use his endowment to build a new library in Northeast Philly instead. The Bushrod Branch opened in 1950.
