The Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library at 3310 Connecticut Ave. N.W. opened in October 1953. The building occupies a prominent corner lot on the west side of Connecticut Avenue between Macomb and Newark streets in the heart of Cleveland Park's commercial district. The library represents the culmination of decades of community activism in support of the placement of a public library in this Northwest community. The present site on Connecticut Avenue was referred to as the "library lot" as early as 1913.  

The building was designed by Municipal Architect Merrell A. Coe with guidance from the Public Library staff and the Library Board of Trustees. The site of the library was purchased for $75,000 in 1945. The Connecticut Avenue Citizens Association raised $30,000. The rest was appropriated by Congress. When it opened, the Cleveland Park branch was one of the largest in the D.C. Public Library system and included both adult and juvenile services. The building was the first of the D.C. libraries designed in a spare Modernist style, emphasizing functionalism. The Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library is located within the Cleveland Park National Register Historic District, designated in 1987.
 
The Cleveland Park branch began as a small collection of books provided by the public library system and housed in a single room of the John Eaton School at 34th and Lowell streets N.W. This first library was born of community action on the part of Cleveland Park residents who petitioned the D.C. Public Library's head librarian, Dr. George Bowerman, for a library in their neighborhood. In 1910, Dr. Bowerman agreed to provide books if the community got approval from the Board of Education to donate a room of the new John Eaton School, and if the community could raise the salary for a librarian to come one day a week. Mrs. Philip S. Smith explained how the community "went from house to scattered house peddling the idea and came up with fifty dollars--the complete salary for the year."

The community was successful in establishing a small library service at the new John Eaton School. However, after this promising start, library services in Cleveland Park were stopped  after only a year because of the outbreak of World War I. Services at John Eaton School were not reinstated until after World War II.

By the mid-1940s, enough local interest in establishing a library branch in Cleveland Park had been generated to attract the attention of the public library's administrators. Between 1944 and 1945, several community activists, including Harry C. Grove, Mrs. Cazenove Lee and Catherine Cate Coblentz, led a drive to collect $30,000 as the community's contribution toward the purchase of the library site. Congress provided the remaining $45,000 needed to purchase the land.

In 1948, the D.C. Public Library's Board of Trustees decided to provide for a temporary, part-time branch in the John Eaton School as a reward to the citizens of Cleveland Park who had contributed toward the purchase of a permanent library site.

In the 1951-52 District budget, Congress allocated $335,000 for construction of the new Neighborhood Library in Cleveland Park. The building was designed by the Municipal Architect Merrell A. Coe, and constructed by the general contracting firm of W.M. Chappell, Inc. By October of 1952, construction had begun with an anticipated completion date of April 1953.

When it was finished, the Cleveland Park branch, officially named the Cleveland Park Memorial Library, was one of the largest branch buildings in the District of Columbia. It had a book capacity of 45,000 volumes, and accommodated adult and juvenile collections, public restrooms, an engine room, janitor's quarters, book storage space and staff quarters. The building's design intentionally provided space for an additional auditorium wing to be constructed at a later date, and the foundation and structural framing allowed for the future expansion of a second story.

A 1952 article described the building as an example of "simple, modern architecture," constructed of gray-colored brick with an emphasis on a large display window flanked by entrance and exit doors. The interior featured an open plan with no fixed partition walls, lending itself to "the maximum utilization of space."

Branch officials agitated for construction funding for the planned auditorium as early as 1952, requesting $80,000. While the drawings had been finalized earlier by the municipal architect, funds did not become available until March 1955. The funds, however, proved insufficient to cover the cost of construction, and the plans had to be revised. Triangle Construction Company was chosen as the general contractor, and the auditorium addition was completed early in 1957.

The library was the recipient of numerous gifts and donations from local individuals and organizations during its early years of operation, including a slide projector and plants for the grounds from the Cleveland Park Garden Club; drapes, folding chairs, a peg board, and $450 for books from the Connecticut Avenue Citizens Association. The library held several open houses early in its history, including a tour during the American Library Association's 1959 conference, the publication of the history of Cleveland Park by the neighborhood library association, the exhibition of a photomontage on Canada, and a demonstration by Reading Dynamics Institute. The branch has also hosted numerous meetings of local organizations over the years. In 1977, the library was serving approximately 10,000 patrons, and circulating some 10,000 books and periodicals monthly. The Friends of Cleveland Park Library was organized in 1980 and incorporated in 1981. The group supports the library through fundraising events, volunteer services and annual events.

Special collections include college guides, a Great Books collection, classics in paperback and a Cleveland Park Neighborhood History File. Programs and services include a symphony talk, a Wednesday morning book club, the Cleveland Park Film Club and four meeting rooms.