History
The Barbour Branch library is located in the northeast section of the city of Hartford. The branch opened in October 1927 at 572 Windsor Street and remained there until 1939. During this time, it was called the Windsor Street Branch. In April 1939, the branch was moved to rented quarters on Barbour Street and was renamed the Barbour Branch. In July 1974, the Barbour Branch moved to its current location, 281 Barbour Street in the Unity Plaza, which is also a rented facility.
Branch Facts
Size: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 775 sq. ft.
Holdings: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20, 471 items
Public Access Computers: . . . . . Four
Hours Open: . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 hours per week
Attendance: . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 921 visits per month
Circulation: . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 759 items borrowed per month
Program Attendance: . . . . . . . . 474 attending programs per month
Reference, Information &
Reader Services: . . . . . . . . . 2, 256 questions answered per month
Population Served
Population: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,137
Census Tracts: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5010, 5011, 5012, 5013, and 5015
School Aged Youth: . . . . . . . . . . . . 1, 337
Percentage of Free or
Reduced School Lunches: . . . . . . . . . . 100%
Percentage of Adults with
High School Education: . . . . . . . . . . 58%
Percentage of Owner Occupied Housing: . . . 24%
Percentage of Households with
Access to Vehicles: . . . . . . . . . . . . 55%
Percentage of Single Parent Households with
Children Under 18: . . . . . . . . . . . . 58%
Community Information
There are four elementary schools in the Barbour Branch/northeast neighborhood area: John C. Clark, Fred D. Wish, Simpson-Waverly, and Hartford Transitional Learning Academy, which is located in the old Clarence Barbour School. There are several daycare centers that are served by the Barbour Branch including CRT Creative Learning Center, Waverly Early Learning Center, Wish School Preschool, and Clark Street Early Learning Center. The Community Renewal Team (CRT) Community/Senior Center is located next door and shares a close relationship with the Barbour Branch. The branch is within walking distance of the Salvation Army and the Kelvin D. Andersen centers, which are two local facilities that hosts many after school programs for neighborhood children. The branch is also located within walking distance to the old Stowe Village neighborhood, which has been rebuilt into single family homes. The houses have not been occupied yet, but will help to increase the number of owner occupied housing units in the neighborhood.
Community Relationships/Services
Barbour Branch staff have participated in or have been key contributors to such school programs as PTO meetings, Simpson-Waverly School’s Winter Chorus Concert, Clark School’s Library Card Drive, and Clark School’s Second Cup of Coffee. The staff are proud to partner with Waverly Early Learning Centers’ School Readiness Program, which provides their teachers with books and story hours from the library staff. Staff visits each daycare center monthly to provide story time and lots of books to the preschoolers. Story times are also provided in the library. Seniors, local neighborhood residents, and patrons from other towns such as Windsor, West Hartford, and Bloomfield all use the library’s resources.
A new and larger separate facility for the Barbour Branch Library has been a wish and a request from the patrons and northeast neighborhood residents. Such a facility will support the nineteen hundred patrons who actively visit the Barbour Branch Library for books, videos, programs, and computer usage.
Staff and team members from the Northeast Neighborhood Team attend meetings for organizations that serve the Barbour Branch/northeast neighborhood area and the city of Hartford. These meetings include, but are not limited to: Northeast Revitalization Association N.E.R.A./NRZ, N.E.R.A. Block Watch Captains Meeting, Martin Street Block Association, Wish School Improvement Team, Comprehensive Communities Partnership, City of Hartford Women’s Commission, and the Steering Committee (Weed & Seed). Team members have also attended the New England Conference for the Research, Conservation, and Development Committee.
Noted Trends
The Northeast neighborhood has an estimated population of 10,137 persons with 79% Black/African-American, 18% Hispanic/Latino, and 3% White. Barbour Branch’s patrons are predominantly Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino. The number of child patrons outnumbers adult patrons by a small margin and make up the bulk of program attendees. However, the numbers for adult circulation outnumbers the children’s circulation. Many adult patrons come to the library to check out the branch’s holdings by African American authors. Many preschool teachers come to the library to checkout picture books for their classes.
Branch Initiatives
Barbour Branch is open 30 hours per week, which includes Saturdays year round. The number of the videos in the collection has increased and continues to boost the circulation of those materials and overall circulation. This branch was one of the firsts to benefit from repairs and physical improvements through the library’s Adopt-A-Branch Program. Barbour Branch has been able to facilitate reading programs such as Pizza Party stories, which is a weeklong reading program that encourages reading among our elementary school aged patrons. Barbour has also had cultural family programs such as Black History Bingo, African American History Bottles and African American History Feud. Barbour Branch is home to a popular adult book discussion group that is faithfully attended each month and is led by a Northeast Neighborhood Team member.
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