The Northgate Branch Library is throwing a free birthday party on Tuesday, July 14, and the whole neighborhood is invited.
Chief Librarian Tom Fay and community guests will mark the branch's 20th anniversary from 2 to 5 p.m. with cake, crafts, games, and a photo booth. No registration required.
"For the past two decades, the Northgate Branch has provided a welcoming space for families, older adults, immigrants and refugees, job seekers, students, and others seeking connection and resources," Fay said in a statement announcing the celebration.
The 10,000-square-foot branch opened on July 15, 2006, the 18th project completed under the voter-approved 1998 Libraries for All bond. Designed by Miller Hull Partnership with a LEED gold rating, it was built as part of an urban campus alongside the Northgate Community Center and adjoining park. According to SPL, thousands of books were checked out within an hour of opening day.
The branch recorded 120,000 visits in 2025, according to SPL, and hosts hundreds of programs annually, including a weekly baby story time, English Conversation Circle, Memory Café, and Kids Make and Build. It also has an informal tradition that's become neighborhood lore: children can get a free Pokémon card if they ask at the circulation desk.
When the branch opened, it sat across the street from Northgate Mall, the first regional shopping center in the United States to carry the name "mall" when it debuted in 1950. The mall is gone now, replaced by a Sound Transit light rail station, the Kraken Community Iceplex, and thousands of new housing units. The library, community center, and park remain.
Harry Coles, a longtime patron who visits regularly from a nearby senior living facility, put it simply: "In all the years that I have gone to libraries, this is the friendliest, the cleanest, and the nicest."
Anniversary week lineup
All programs are free, open to the public, and supported by donors of The Seattle Public Library Foundation:
- Saturday, July 11 — West African Dance workshop with Franchesska Berry, 11 a.m.–noon
- Monday, July 13 — Firefighter Story Time, 11 a.m.–noon
- Tuesday, July 14 — Cempasúchitl Mixed Media workshop (English and Spanish), 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, July 14 — 20th Anniversary Celebration, 2–5 p.m.
- Wednesday, July 15 — Baby Story Time, 12:30–1 p.m.
- Thursday, July 16 — "The Secrets of Magic" with magician Maritess Zurbano, 1–2 p.m.
