Old Tampa Free Public Library, Public library in Tampa Heights, Florida.

The Old Tampa Free Public Library at 102 E. 7th Avenue is a T-plan masonry building designed by Tampa architect Fred J. James, with brown and yellow brick over a rusticated granite basement and a barrel tile roof. It was built from 1915 to 1917 with a $50,000 Carnegie grant.

The building opened in 1917 with support from a major donation and served as Tampa's primary library facility for many years. It lost this role in 1968 when library services relocated to a new downtown location.

Locals called it the "7th Avenue Library." Children came to the basement's west side for afternoon storytelling, while cataloging and processing, including hand-lettering spines to mark branches and subjects, took place on the east side. Tampa's first bookmobile collection was kept here, and back issues of newspapers and magazines were stored behind smoked glass.

The building today serves as an administrative office and is not open to the public as a reading space. Visitors can view the exterior architecture, but should note that this is an office building rather than a public cultural center.

Tampa's first bookmobile was kept at this library, and a dumbwaiter carried requested back issues of newspapers and magazines up from storage behind smoked glass before the building had an elevator. Cataloging staff hand-lettered spines to mark branches and subjects.