Residents of the East Lake Community became reacquainted with an old friend Monday morning as the library branch at Oporto-Madrid Boulevard and Division Avenue reopened after being closed for about four years.

And patrons were glad to have it back.

“Oh, gosh, yes. Yes, yes, yes,” said Gwen Cox of nearby Roebuck Springs. “I have loved this library and mourned it just because it was gone and I really did not think it would come back. I just was afraid they would not find the funds to be able to do this building and have it safe and everything working like it should.”

The historic library has been closed since 2021 due to complications with the HVAC system. In 2023, the Birmingham City Council approved spending $193,000 for repairs and renovations. Council President Darrell O’Quinn also provided $5,000 in discretionary funds to support the effort. Each spoke during the grand reopening, along with BPL leadership and local officials.

“The fact that it’s here is wonderful,” Cox said. “I was able to see Mayor (Randall) Woodfin upstairs and personally thank him for getting it back. Oh, it just, it feels great to know that it’s here.”

Librarians quickly were in full operation, checking out books, renewing library cards and accepting fines for overdue books. Arlo Pate was ashamed to admit that they were returning a stack of books that were “very overdue.”

“This is truly my biggest embarrassment,” they said sheepishly. “They’re very overdue.”

But not as long as the branch has been closed.

“Not that long, but about half that,” the ninth and 12th-grade English teacher said, admitting they could have returned them to another branch. “The (East Lake) library is opening. I have no excuse now.”

Robert Walker, president of the East Lake Community and Wahouma Neighborhood Association, dropped by to talk about possibly renewing a relationship with the branch.

“Formerly, we would have the neighborhood meeting here and we’d like to expand to the community meeting,” Walker said, adding that neighborhood meetings have been at the Southern Museum of Flight since the branch has been closed.

The venue for meetings will be on the agenda for Thursday’s neighborhood meeting.

LeVerne Holdby was late hearing about the reopening and was late arriving.

“I had people calling me to say, it’s today,” the East Lake resident said. “That’s why, I guess, I’m a little late, because I really wanted to be here today. I didn’t have a car so I had to call my brother to take me down here.”

Holdby, a volunteer reading tutor at Barrett Elementary School across the street, said she taught quilting classes for senior citizens in the library’s auditorium upstairs.

“Then we put on a show with the quilts that we made and had a nice showing,” she said. “It was great. I just wanted to come back up and see if it was possible to maybe get them (classes) started again. We’ll connect and see if that can be done with the reopening.”