In 1807, soon after the town was incorporated as West Cambridge, a private social library was organized. In 1835, Ebenezer Learned, a physician from Hopkinton, New Hampshire, left $100 in his will to establish a juvenile section of the library. As a young man, he had taught in the town and remembering those years as some of the most pleasant in his life, provided funds to purchase a number of children’s books from Little, Brown and Company. These were brought to town in a wheelbarrow by the newly appointed librarian, Mr. Jonathan Dexter, establishing what would become the Robbins Library as the first continuous and free children’s library in the nation.

Two years later Town Meeting voted an annual appropriation to the library and by 1872 the town changed its name to the Arlington Public Library. During the next twenty years rapid growth forced the library to move to six different locations in the town center.

A permanent home was established for the library in 1892 following a gift from Maria C. Robbins, in memory of her husband Eli. The building, designed by Cabot, Everett and Mead in the Italian Renaissance design, cost $150,000 to construct and could hold 60,000 volumes. Named for the Robbinses, it was considered one of the more noteworthy pieces of architecture of the time. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As Mrs. Robbins died before the building was completed, and before her intention of creating an endowment could be carried out, her brother, knowing of her wishes, used $50,000 from his share of her estate to create the Elbridge Farmer fund for further support of the library.

The library continued to grow as the town of Arlington’s population expanded. In 1930, the population had increased to 36,000 and the library’s collection to 40,000. The town therefore appropriated $90,000 to add a wing to house the children’s room and a public meeting room. Branch libraries were also established.

By 1951 a series of alterations had been undertaken at the Robbins Library. In 1958 two mezzanine levels and an elevator were added in the main building and in 1963 the third-floor art gallery and rotunda were enclosed with shelving.

In 1989, the Robbins Library received $3.3 million in state funding for renovation and expansion. The project was completed in 1994. As a wonderful parallel to the events of 1892, a generous benefactor came forward to endow the library with $500,000. The Anne A. Russell Trust Fund, established by Gordon Russell in honor of his mother, supports special library services for the children of Arlington.