It is the 1930s, the Great Depression has started, and we begin another chapter in the story of libraries. Girl Scout Intermediate Bookbinding Badge from the 1930s, showing an open book. Our two previous articles recounted earlier reading rooms and libraries on Mendocino’s Main Street, and then in the building on the corner of Ukiah and Lansing Street. Since its construction by W. H. Kelley in [...]
This is the second segment in a series of articles about the libraries in Mendocino. The previous column took us from 1883, when the first library opened in the Good Templars’ Hall on south Main Street, to 1909. That year the county went “dry” and the libraries sponsored by these temperance organizations had completed their mission. The Public Library and Reading Room in the early 1900s [...]
Main Street in Mendocino looking east in the mid 1930s. Templars Hall, site of the first library, is the building on the right just in front of the fire hall with the bell tower. It was demolished in 1938. Mendocino’s first public library must have had an enviable ocean view. Called the Free Reading Room, it opened in April of 1883 on the second floor of [...]