Established in 1909, the Toronto Reference Library initially operated from another building based at College Street. In the late-1960s, management of the library was assumed by the Metropolitan Toronto Library Board. Believing the space in the original structure to be inadequate, Raymond Moriyama was tasked to find a new site, and was later commissioned by the library board to design a new library building for the site. The reference library's new building was opened to the public in 1977 and operated as the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library until 1998. From 2009 to 2014, the building underwent renovations and expansions.