Previously known as the Highland School, the two-story brick-and-concrete Renaissance Revival building was designed by architect Horace G. Wadlin and built in 1896–97.

[2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984,[1] the year it was converted for use as the library.

The Highland School building is set on the south side of Middlesex Avenue in the Reading Highlands area of Reading, west of the town's central business district.

The front facade has projecting sections at each corner, and a center section that projects a shorter distance, but is fronted by a hip-roofed porte-cochere, supported by paired Ionic columns set brick piers connected by a wooden balustrade.

The porte-cochere shelters the main entrance, which is recessed under a round-arch opening and accessed by stairs.