CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For over 100 years, Charlotte’s main library branch sat at North Tryon Street, but its doors finally closed Friday.


What You Need To Know

The main branch officially closed its doors to the public at 5 p.m. Friday

Nearly 140,000 items will be moved to the library system's 19 other branches until the new building is complete 

The old building is expected to be demolished by early 2022 


If you told Sydney Carroll she’d be packing up a collection of historic items from the library years ago, she probably wouldn’t believe you.

“It’s been a really great opportunity to kind of look through all the collections and figure out what we got, and I actually found a lot of things I didn’t know we had,” she said. 

Carroll started her career as an archivist at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library’s main branch three years ago. But for the last eight months, she’s been packing and preparing for the branch’s doors to finally close Friday.

“The library started out here on this corner in 1903 and has been here for the last 118 years,” Chief Library Services Officer Caitlin Moen said.

Moen says after years of talks, this branch will finally be demolished to make room for a new five-story building. 

“We’re standing in a building that was built in the '50s and the '80s, and we’re working towards having our system be the library that Charlotte deserves,” she said.

The $135 million new building is expected to be completed by early 2025. Carroll is sad to see this branch go, but she’s also excited to see the history she loves so much finally get a brand-new home. 

There’s around 140,000 items from this branch being moved to various branches across Charlotte.

Demolition for the main branch is expected to take place by early 2022. The library system plans to open two pop-up locations in the next couple of weeks.