Forced to close in March last year, following years of struggle brought on by a dwindling endowment, many felt that the Fraser-Hickson had been left to drift on its own by the City of Montreal, which had kept the privately-funded library on life-support for several years with short-term grants.

While many generations of residents in NDG and Montreal's West End have depended — in the absence of adequate library service in Montreal — on the Fraser-Hickson as their community library, the institution's administrators saw no choice but to put their Kensington Avenue building up for sale, while seeking out a new location.

While the Fraser-Hickson's vast collection of books and other materials have been in storage at a warehouse since the sale, the library administration had been leasing space in the basement of their former home, which was purchased last year by École Rudolf Steiner, a private school.

As the first, $2.5 million phase, of a 99-year agreement announced last week by the Fraser-Hickson, in partnership with the church, most of the more than 100,000 books and documents that make up the collection would be available to library members by next fall in a 9,000-square-foot basement space.

A second phase, costing an estimated $3 million, and to be undertaken as economic conditions permit, would involve the construction of a 21,000-square-foot extension on the eastern side of Trinity Memorial along Marlowe Avenue.

"We have a wonderful volume down there," said John Dinsmore, chairman of the Fraser-Hickson's board of directors. "It's about 18 feet high at its peak. It's got a lot of natural light on both sides and I think it's about 100 feet long by forty feet wide. And so there's plenty of space to install our book shelves, our reading tables, our sitting out areas, so on and so forth.

"We're going to have a separate library for children as we had before with a story-telling area, and we're also going to create a space for people in their teens to come and look at the things that interest them." Also included will be state-of-the-art computer equipment for accessing information and data banks.

In keeping with their mandate to provide library services to all Montrealers, the Fraser-Hickson's administrators decided on the Trinity Memorial location because of its proximity to the Vendome Metro, Sherbrooke Street and the Decarie Expressway.

"It's really so much better, in terms of physical access, than we were able to offer out on Kensington Avenue and Somerled," Dinsmore said. "We believe it's an improved product for the public and we hope that we will garner their support because we are more available."

Reacting to the announcement, Côte des Neiges-NDG Borough Mayor Michael Applebaum said he was "very pleased they've found a new location," while adding that the borough is pursuing its own plan to open a new branch of the City of Montreal's public library on Monkland Avenue across from Benny Park.

"No matter if the Fraser-Hickson is in operation or not, the City of Montreal has an obligation, I feel, to provide proper library services. We are scheduled, in line, to be the next major announcement in the City of Montreal for a new library."