The institution was preceded by a freeholders' library in the 1860s, which was eventually replaced in 1901 by a reading room organized and funded by a women's group.

After its sale, the old library building housed a variety of private commercial enterprises, including an antique shop, a restaurant and a kilt manufacturer.

[1][2] In 1976 it was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places by Seattle architect Larry E. Johnson, and formally added to the list in 1979.

[3][4] In the late 1860s, when Ballard was a new settlement along the edge of Salmon Bay, a homesteader named Ira Wilcox Utter helped create a freeholders' library.

The costs for the building were raised by local businesses and citizens, with support from the earlier fundraising and book collections of the women's union and a $15,000 grant from Carnegie.

[5] In 1942, during World War II, one of the first African American librarians in Seattle, Lucille Smith, was assigned to the library.