|
When the new
32,400-square-foot replacement building for the
present Tustin library is completed, it will be
the ninth home for the almost 120-year-old
library.
According to
Tustin historian Carol Jordan, the library first
opened in 1890 in the school house. Serving the
school children and residents of Tustin, it had
a count of 1,576 books in 1906. When Tustin
Grammar School opened in 1914 on C St., these
books were moved to a reading room. The Orange
County Public Library System took over the
reading room and opened it to the public in
1924.
Hazel Gowdy
became the first paid librarian in 1926 and
remained until 1959. Most long-time Tustin
residents remember her fondly. A small woman
whose gray hair constantly escaped its bun, she
never failed to greet each patron warmly,
suggesting new books or locating old favorites.
She was
especially kind to children, always willing to
leave her desk and search for a book that suited
each child’s individual interest and reading
ability. Many who were children then now credit
her with their love for reading.
When the Reading
Room was badly damaged during the 1933
earthquake, the library moved to its third
location, a tiny office at the rear of the First
National Bank, facing D St. (El Camino Real).
Carolyn Campbell, a library board member, called
the new location for which her husband built
shelves to house books salvaged from the reading
room, “A miserable little hole.”
The library
stayed in this cubbyhole until 1938. At that
time Mrs. Gowdy and others in the community
lobbied for better quarters with the result that
the library moved to its fourth location, a 1914
building at 130 W. Main St., formerly a drug
store. The Chamber of Commerce, businesses and
individuals donated materials and money for
tables, benches, magazine racks and shelves made
by the Tustin High School shop classes under the
direction of Orville Northrup.
In 1946 the
library left this location to move four doors to
the west for its fifth location into the
building that now houses Rutabegorz. In 1950,
the library went to its sixth home, the City of
Tustin Annex on Third Street. In addition to the
library, this facility housed the fire
department, police, city government and a court
room that doubled as a meeting place for the
city council.
Eight years later
the library was on the move again, this time to
its seventh location on Newport Boulevard at
Andrews Place. Although this building was
enlarged in 1963, it became too small for the
number of people served, and in 1976 an eighth
move was made to the present 13,000-square-foot
location in the Civic Center.
To meet the
current needs of Tustin’s expanded population,
the new $30 million library will include 100
computer stations, a plaza where people can
gather, a homework center, expanded collections,
including books, DVDs, books on CD and recorded
music as well as expanded Spanish and Asian
language collections.
|
