A group of Elmwood mothers formed the Elmwood Public Library Association and went door-to-door to raise money to open a library in 1915 in a small room above a local fire station. The library was too small to meet the needs of patrons in the neighborhood, and the children of Robert Brayton Knight, founder of the Fruit of the Loom Company, built the current Knight Memorial Library in 1924 as a "memorial to their parents and a place for the Elmwood library to make itself a home. Along with the building, the Knights continued to donate money as well as private collections of books to the library throughout the years. 1

Knight Memorial Library remained a privately operated public library until 1962. During this time, the Knight Memorial Association paid for the overhead of the building, and the Elmwood Library Association dealt with operating expenses and ran the library, with financial contributions to both organizations provided by the Knight family. However in 1962, management of the library was assumed by the Providence Public Library, and in 1995, Knight Memorial Library Association officially merged with Providence Public Library; thereupon, Knight Memorial Library became a full PPL branch in the PPL system of neighborhood libraries.

Knight History Brochure (PDF)

1."Lilli Avenia, Kevin Crace, and Ming Yi Wong, "KML Report: A Reference Document for Preservation Planning," Second Draft, March 27, 2010, pp. 4, 7. Additional information provided by Deborah Del Gais in correspondence with the author, May 9, 2011.