A view of two buildings of the Library from the Lake side.
The city was fortunate to have a good library as early as 1905. A beautiful two-storied library building overlooking the Lake Sharmishtha was built with a private donation from the leading businessman of the time, Sheth Bogilal Chakulal Shahekaranwala, in memory of his father. It was named as Sheth Bhogilal Chakulal Vidyavardhak Library and managed by a trust.
It was a well stocked library with beautiful furniture where the city people gathered not only to read books and periodicals, but also to debate and discuss. It had the right ambience for supporting and furthering the scholastic culture of the city.
The new library building was constructed with donation from Shree Purushottamdas Narberam Patel.
However, the building was not large enough to provide reading and meeting facility to women and children. Such a facility was created in 1935, when another and more spacious building was built with the effort of Shree Mayabhai Manilal Mehta, who was an enlightened leader and a leading businessman of the time.
His zeal to expand the library was reciprocated by another leading businessman Shree Purushattamdas Narbheram Patel, who generously donated funds to build a new modern building few paces away from the old library.
The second building of the Library, built in 1935, is perilously tilted at present. As a result the facility is closed down. Damage to the building's anchoring tie beams passing under the road due to indiscriminate digging is blamed for this irreparable damage. It is feared that the whole building, with its land mass, is very likely to slid into the Lake. Only some kind of engineering feat can save this beautiful historical building, which was considered an engineering marvel at the time of its construction.