The penultimate Toronto Public Library I visited on my quest was one of its smallest: Swansea Memorial. This compact branch occupied one room on the upper floor of Swansea’s City Hall, where it has resided for fifty-six years. (Previously, it was located in Swansea Public School from 1919 to 1959).
With only 1,127 square feet of floor space, what Swansea Memorial lacked in size was compensated by epic historical flavour. Even its study table had a history; carpenter S. Haslam built it in 1926.
I liked the pioneer vibe of this venerable library, for it evoked the one-room schoolhouses of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables. In fact, Anne’s famous Canadian author, L. M. Montgomery lived in the village of Swansea from 1935 until her death in 1942, as Mary Henley Rubio details in Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (p. 446).
As evidence of further connection to Swansea Memorial, the library had a copy of a 1939 letter that Montgomery signed. The letter praised one Mrs. R. C. Smith, a woman who served as chairperson of the local library board for twenty years. 
From a leaflet about Swansea Memorial Library’s history, I learned that credit for its creation belongs to the Women’s Patriotic League of Swansea, who wanted to honour the 152 freshly-returned local veterans of the First World War as well as “our twenty men who sleep in Flanders Field” (see letter above).
However, soldiers’ tombstones and Haslam’s no-nonsense table didn’t completely define Swansea Memorial. The trippy whimsy of a tie-dyed kite, a plush turtle and a mural cat with its paws on an outlet softened the solemn military associations of the library’s name.
My last act of homage at Swansea Memorial was to study the folksy mural on the outer wall of the library. I loved the lively colours and the way the art piece transformed the interior of an official municipal building into a friendly community space. I also appreciated how the mural held the tension between memorial and celebration, making it an ideal spot to reflect on a pilgrimage to all of Toronto Public Library‘s branches. 
Thank you, Swansea Memorial, for remembering lives lost in war and appreciating flowers, ladybugs, cats, swans, turtles and squirrels.