The Houston Freed-Montrose library will reopen next month as part of the Montrose Collective after months of back-and-forth by library administrators and Mayor John Whitmire. 

Whitmire originally opposed the move and removed Executive Director Rhea Lawson one day after she announced in March that the historic Montrose location would close due to safety concerns. 

The library began operating at 4100 Montrose Blvd., a 78-year old Italian-Romanesque former church, in 1988, and eventually fell into disrepair due to neglect, a Houston Landing investigation found. It will close Thursday to begin renovations.

Improvements to the location, including safety measures and technology upgrades, will cost more than $14 million, and controversy over its future was complicated by the 1986 deed. The former owner gifted the building to the city on the condition it could not go more than 30 days without operating as a library before the year 2051 or ownership would revert to the neighboring University of St. Thomas.

The university offered to buy the building in November 2023 for $1.25 million, according to emails obtained by the Landing. A spokesperson for the university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mary Benton, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said there would be “some programming” offered at the 4100 Montrose location as it undergoes renovation that will keep the property from reverting to the university. 

The decision to move the library to the collective “took some convincing” for Whitmire, she said. He initially opposed the location, saying in May it was “very close to adult entertainment, on the third story of a commercial building, behind the hamburger building. When I saw it, I said, ‘Not on my watch.’”

The mayor’s interim library director said in June that the move to the Montrose Collective was back on.

Benton said she would have to speak with Whitmire again to talk about what changed his mind, but some aspects of the move, including construction at Montrose Collective, already had begun when he took office.

Days after the former library director’s abrupt announcement that the Freed Library would close permanently in April, Whitmire posed for pictures putting a sign into the ground in front of the Montrose Boulevard location that read, “Yes, we’re open.” The mayor said then that he wanted to keep the building open in some form even after the library moved to the Montrose Collective.

The Montrose Boulevard location had one of the sharpest drops in attendance and circulation between 2018 and 2023, according to a Landing analysis. The Houston Public Library System said it was “tied with three other locations for the second-worst neighborhood library.”

Houston Library Director Sandy Gaw, appointed by Whitmire in August, said the improvements to the location will benefit the entire community. 

“I am optimistic about the possibilities as we strengthen our relationship with both the Montrose community and the University of St. Thomas,” Gaw said. “Our commitment is to ensure the best possible outcome for the community.”

The Montrose Collective location at 1001 California Street is scheduled to  open Dec. 14, and will offer advanced technology, dedicated youth spaces, adult community programs, outdoor space and a permanent art installation. 

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