The Former Site of the Gushan Branch of the Zhejiang Library is located at No. 28, Gushan Road, Xihu Street, Xihu District. It consists of the White Building (白楼), the Red Building (红楼) and the Qingbai (Cyan and White) Mountain Residence (青白山居) on the top of the mountain to the west. It faces south and covers an area of 5,000 square meters.
There was originally a stone plaque of "Zhejiang Library" from the first year of the Republic of China (1912) on the roof of the White Building, which is now preserved in the stele corridor. The construction of the White Building started in May of the third year of Xuantong in the Qing Dynasty (1911) and was completed in the following year. The building is concave when viewed from above and has a floor area of 1,878 square meters. It is a two-story brick and wood Western-style building with a post-and-lintel frame and internal framing. The White Building is the earliest public library building in China, and there is a "T" shaped flower bed in front of the building.
The Red Building was built in the 29th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1903) by the Qing government for a German prince to stay when in Hangzhou. In 1912, it was assigned to the Zhejiang Library for its use. The horizontal plane of the Red Building is rectangular, and it is a two-story red brick foreign-style house. Both the first and second floors are built in the English-style vaulted structure with a built-up area of 671 square meters. There is a stele corridor built in the west of the Red Building, displaying 130 square stele inscriptions.
Qingbai Mountain Residence was built in the 1930s and was originally the villa of Yang Hu, commander of the Kuomintang Shanghai Garrison. The building is square and symmetrical. The roof is in the traditional Chinese architectural style with cornices, and the walls and fences are in the Western style, which is dignified, elegant, grand and unconventional. After the villa was built, for some reason no interior was done, and it is said that the owner never lived in it. After 1949, it was used by various cultural organizations in Zhejiang Province, and is now used by the Zhejiang Library to store books. It is an excellent modern public building in China and where the national treasure "Si Ku Quan Shu" is collected. The Gushan Branch, which was the main library of the Zhejiang Library until September 1932, is now the Ancient Books Department of Zhejiang Library. On December 12, 1989, the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government declared the Gushan Branch a provincial cultural relic protection unit.