It is located at 470 West Boylston Street, in an architecturally distinguished building, funded in part by Andrew Carnegie and built in 1913.

[1] The library is located on Worcester north side, and is set on the east side of West Boylston Street (Massachusetts Route 12), on the corner of Kendrick Avenue.

It is a single story masonry structure, finished in brick with limestone trim.

[2] The branch was renamed in 1994 in honor of Frances Perkins, the first female member of the United States Cabinet and a resident of Worcester during her youth.

Perkins served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, through the entire presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leading the department through the Great Depression and World War II.