In 1915, with a donation from Sōma Teppei (相馬哲平), construction of a dedicated five-storey library began, completed the following year; this building is important as an early example of a reinforced concrete building on the island (cf.

In the first year of the Shōwa era (1926), city councillors approved the design of a new municipal library, three storey, again in reinforced concrete.

With the approval of the private Hakodate Library's director Hirade Kisaburō (平出喜三郎), its entire collection was donated and transferred, and in 1928 the new Hakodate City Library (市立函館図書館) opened to the public.

Duty to the city's growth, a number of local libraries were opened in the following decades.

In 2005 the new Hakodate City Central Library opened across the road from Goryōkaku.