Upon the closure of the Athenaeum Library in 1877, Rochester, New York lost its only lending library with substantial literary and non-fiction holdings. The Reynolds family had long supported the Athenaeum Library, which inspired Mortimer F. Reynolds, who was childless, to invest his fortune in the creation of a new subscription library as a memorial to his family. The Reynolds Library receieved its charter from New Yrok State in 1884 and opened its doors on January 6, 1886. The first librarian was Williamm A. Borden. The Reynolds Library initially operated in a space on the third floor of the Reynolds Arcade, moving to the former mansion of Mortimer Reynolds upon his death in 1892.

With the closure of the original Rochester Public Library in 1904, the Reynolds Library became the only circulating library in the city until the new Rochester Public Library opened in 1912. At the same time, the Raynolds Library began to face financial pressure due to an 1896 state law abolishing the previous tax exemption for library-held real estate. As the Raynolds Library was funded through income from the Reynolds Arcade buidling, the tax bills owed by the library slowly ate away at its finances. Despite this handicap, the Reynolds Library continued to grow and develop a diverse collection for decades. It was not until the 1920s that the Reynolds Library began to see serious competition from the rapidly growing Rochester Public Library. Faced with a deteriorating financial situation, the Reynolds Library to merge with another area library -first, that of the University of Rochester, then, following public outcry, with the Rochester Public Library. The latter union was consummated by City Council on December 26, 1933, and was contingent upon the construction of a new Central Library building. This would become the Rundel Memorial Building. A bill alloowing the merger passed the State Legislature and was signed by Governor Lehman in March of 1934. With the Rundel Memorial Building completed, the Reynolds Library shut its doors on September 1, 1936, and moved its collection into the new building.

The Rochester Public Library (RPL) was formed in 1911; the first branch (Edgerton) opened on October 9, 1912, with a $10,000 budget for books. RPL was founded as a branch system due to limited funding; spending money on books and patron services was considered more important than building a true central library. Numerous branches opened in the years before the Great Depression. However, the Depression created a deficit in the library budget, resulting in some branches closing, hours being limited and personnel being cut, despite heavy library usage. Ironically, the construction of a central library finally became possible in these difficult times. The combination of a $314,000 Works Progress Administration grant and the $995,000 available from the estate of Morton Rundel allowed the City of Rochester to begin work on a central library in 1934. (Morton Rundel, a Rochester art dealer and early investor in Esatman Kodak, left the City his estate in 1911 with the intention of funding a library and gallery. A series of legal challenges from his family delayed the finds from actually being available to the City until 1932.) The new Rundel Memorial Building was erected in but a year and a half, opening to the public in 1935. This building provided a home not only for the Rochester Public Library but also, as discussef above, the collection of the Reynolds Library.