The necessity for a library to cater to the burgeoning population of Johnson County, specifically between State Line Road and Metcalf, and south of I-435, was first recognized in the Johnson County Library facilities plan of 1979. Decades later, in the early 1990s, the vision started taking concrete form when The Marned Corporation, the developers of Town Center Plaza, generously donated the land for what would become the Pioneer Library Leawood to the Johnson County Library. This location was strategically advantageous, offering high visibility from the street, proximity to a popular shopping and dining hub, and just a short distance from the national headquarters of Sprint, then the largest employer in Johnson County.
Final designs for this much-needed branch were completed by mid-1992, and construction commenced in 1993. The Pioneer Library Leawood proudly opened its doors on May 23rd, 1994, followed by an official dedication ceremony on June 18th. The library’s name was chosen to honor both the city of Leawood and the historic pioneer trails – the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California Trails – that traversed this area between the 1820s and 1870s. At its inauguration, the Pioneer Library Leawood spanned 11,800 square feet and housed approximately 31,000 items.
From its inception, the Pioneer Library Leawood was a bustling community hub. In 1995, its first full calendar year of operation, the library circulated items an impressive 406,001 times. The library’s collection steadily expanded from the initial 31,000 items to around 77,000, and more public access computers were installed over the years to meet growing demand. This popularity led to increased crowding, and the original meeting room was repurposed to create more seating and workspace, which were becoming increasingly scarce.
Recognizing the library’s vital role and anticipating future needs, the original building was designed with expansion in mind. Plans to enlarge the Pioneer Library Leawood were already being considered in the late 1990s. By 2006, planning and funding for an expansion of approximately 8,000 square feet were actively progressing. In September 2008, the library building closed for renovation, and a temporary service point was established in the Town Center Mall across the street to maintain library services for the community. After just over a year of work, the fully renovated and expanded Pioneer Library Leawood reopened on October 1st, 2009, boasting a total area of 19,012 square feet. A formal grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on October 17th to celebrate the revitalized space.
The Pioneer Library Leawood has continued to be a highly active branch, consistently circulating around 450,000 items annually between 2014 and 2018. During this period, it also averaged approximately 240,000 visits per year, demonstrating its continued importance to its service area population of about 37,000 as of 2015.
2018 Statistics:
Visitors: 232,562
Items Circulated: 453,472
Square Footage: 19.012
Article researched and originally written by Jerry C. Roy, 2010
Edited and updated by Mike Keller, 2019
