Richmond Public Library - Main Branch

History 

On August 16, 1907, a member of the Women's Improvement Club of Richmond proposed with enthusiasm that the Club establish a public library. Cheers of approval greeted this motion and the Richmond Public Library Club was formed. The members gathered books, built bookshelves, diligently solicited donations and put on fund-raising entertainments, including raffles and whist parties.

The little library, called the "Richmond Public Library," opened for business on November 10, 1907.  It was housed, temporarily, in the office of the Richmond Record, a local newspaper, with more than 400 volumes, all carefully cataloged and marked. It was a circulating library- -there was no reading room- -and the membership fee was one dollar per year!

Early in 1908, the Club gained title to three lots on Nevin Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets, paying for them, from the profits of country fairs and additional raffles. The City Board of Trustees later purchased two additional lots adjoining these for the future city library, thus providing a full quarter block for the building. A monumental step forward was achieved when Andrew Carnegie, in 1901 pledged $17, 500 to erect a free public library building if the citizens would contribute the balance of the funds necessary to complete, furnish and stock the library.

While all this was going on, in another section of Richmond, a second women's club was also active. In January 1909, the West Side Women's Improvement Club, established the Point Richmond Library in the old city hall building on Washington Avenue. Within a few months it had a collection of 500 volumes. A year later, this collection became a branch library for the proposed city library. This "branch" library became officially as the West Side Branch of the Richmond Public Library in January, 1910.

After May 21, 1910, the little circulating library of the Women's Improvement Club of Richmond was closed and its 1,150 volumes became the nucleus for the City's new library.

In the midst of all this activity, the Carnegie library building was being constructed at Fourth Street and Nevin Avenue. In August of 1929, the Richmond Public Library, a classic-style buidling with a capacity for 12,000 volumes, an encompassing lobby, a children's room, a reference room and a reading room, was officially opened to the public as the City's Library.

The Stege Branch, established in July of 1913, was located on South 41st Street and Potrero Avenue and later moved to South Wall Street.  

The Grant Branch, opened in 1924, was located in the Grant School buidling.

The Main Library on Nevin Avenue, rapidly grew. In March of 1924, a $42,000 addition to the buidling was completed, doubling the size and capacity of the original building.

Over the years, the Library increased its services to the public and pioneered several developments, which later were adopted by other libraries in California: (a) In 1947, the first large bookmobile, west of the Mississippi River; (b) In November of 1945, the first 16mm film service in California.