The Secret Gardens of Cambridge, presented on alternate years, is a signature fundraising event of the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. This special self-guided tour is held on an early Sunday in June, just as spring turns to summer.  Since 2000, the Friends have been uncovering secret gardens in neighborhoods all across the city and inviting our friends and neighbors to take a peek! Learn more here. 

Photo credit: MK Wong

Join us for our first ever used book sale! We’ll be selling gently used children’s and adult fiction books at low prices to benefit the Cambridge Public Library.

The sale will be at 31 Brattle Street in Harvard Square (next to Allbirds).

We are looking for volunteers to help sort and organize books, as well as volunteers to help staff the sale. If you’re interested in volunteering, please sign up here.

Join us for our first ever used book sale! We’ll be selling gently used children’s and adult fiction books at low prices to benefit the Cambridge Public Library.

The sale will be at 31 Brattle Street in Harvard Square (next to Allbirds).

We are looking for volunteers to help sort and organize books, as well as volunteers to help staff the sale. If you’re interested in volunteering, please sign up here.

On May 13 from 11am-4pm, the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library will be collecting donations of gently used children's (fiction and non-fiction), Young Adult, and adult fiction books for a book sale on June 17-18 benefitting the Library.

Please drop off books at 31 Brattle Street. Please note that the library branches will not be accepting book donations. For more information on the book sale, please visit http://www.cambridgepubliclibraryfriends.org/used-book-sale

Drop off gently used children’s books (non-fiction and fiction) and adult fiction books for our book sale in June!

Books will be sold back to the community at our used book sale in June, all proceeds benefitting the Cambridge Public Library

We are looking for volunteers to help sort and organize books, as well as volunteers to help staff the sale. If you’re interested in volunteering, please sign up here.

Drop off gently used children’s books (non-fiction and fiction) and adult fiction books for our book sale in June!

Books will be sold back to the community at our used book sale in June, all proceeds benefitting the Cambridge Public Library

We are looking for volunteers to help sort and organize books, as well as volunteers to help staff the sale. If you’re interested in volunteering, please sign up here.

After a two year hiatus, we are excited to announce the return of the Secret Gardens of Cambridge! This event, which benefits the Cambridge Public Library, uncovers secret gardens in neighborhoods all across the city and invites our friends and neighbors to take a peek! Over the years, the event has featured more than 200 individual gardens in Cambridge. Online registration for tickets begins May 1st 2022. Learn more here.

On April 22, 2019, the Friends hosted a members-only reception for the Stringed Theory - Kora event, featuring Master kora player Yacouba Sissoko from Mali.

Every two years, the Secret Gardens of Cambridge tour uncovers secret gardens in neighborhoods all across the city and invites our friends and neighbors to take a peek! Over the years, the tour has featured more than 200 individual gardens in Cambridge. Learn more here. 

The Friends hosted a festive open house at the Main Library to tell patrons about our organization. We offered free raffle prizes, including a bike and gift certificates.

In this original theater piece, attendees saw and heard what is going on in urban high schools by listening to the voices of students, and the educators who work with them, describing the effects of opportunity gaps and implicit bias in their everyday lives. Sponsored by the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library. Image credit: A.R. Sinclair Photography

For one day only, the Friends sold their three books - Cambridge Cooks, Cambridge Voices, and Secret Gardens of Cambridge - for a reduced rate, as well as offering free gift wrapping. 

The Friends provided a kiosk that contains Mac and PC laptop computers that can be checked out by library cardholders for in-library use.

Doug Most discussed “The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway,” a fascinating story of new science that takes two cities by storm.

The 2016 Secret Garden Tour was a huge success! Despite the overcast weather, proceeds and participation set a record high.

The tour was featured on Boston.com:

• Tour of Cambridge’s secret gardens returns in June
• Inside the secret gardens of Cambridge

At Story and Song Under the Stars, we enjoyed a story and song event on the library lawn with music by The Bagboys, Bluegrass and Western Swing musicians, as well as ice cream donated by Toscanini's Ice Cream. See below for photos from the event.