"an energetic spirit aroused": the santa rosa public library

“An Energetic Spirit Aroused” 1

Running head: “AN ENERGETIC SPIRIT AROUSED”

“An Energetic Spirit Aroused”:

The Santa Rosa Public Library

Brian Eisley

San Jose State University


Abstract

This paper examines the history of the public library in Santa Rosa, California, a typical

library of the western United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The library’s

history is recounted from its precursors in the 1850’s and 1860’s, to its establishment as a

social library in 1868, to its takeover by the city in 1884, through its substantial growth

through the 1890’s. The story concludes with the construction of a Carnegie library in

1903, the subsequent destruction of the building in the 1906 earthquake, and its

reconstruction and service until 1960. The author suggests that library history is a useful

tool for examining the historical forces that influence the development of the library’s

community.


“An Energetic Spirit Aroused”:

The Santa Rosa Public Library

“Several years ago the ladies of the then small town, compared with its present size, gave entertainments of a musical, literary and terpsichorean order, and in this manner acquired quite a little fund by which a number of books were purchased. The use of these in the past year or more has been given to a few only of the members of our society. There can be no doubt, if a suitable place were located, an energetic spirit aroused, and the work begun enthusiastically, we would add to that nucleus and have soon a thorough system in movement for conducting such a benefit as a public library.”

“Public Library”, Sonoma Democrat, January 30, 1875

History is a game of context. The goal of the historian, in studying a particular era

or series of events, is often to identify overarching patterns and trends that can be applied

to similar situations, and also to examine deviations from these trends and the reasons for

these deviations. In order to do this, the historian focuses on one aspect of the period in

great detail, describing the lives of individuals and the meaning of small events, while

keeping in mind the larger picture of the society within which these events happened.

Ideally, the historian will be able to achieve a balance in perspectives, between the small

and seemingly insignificant and the large and influential, and be able to draw connections

between the two scales.

Seen in this context, library history offers a convenient means for approaching the

history of communities. Public libraries, as cultural, educational, and recreational centers,

stand at the interface between community and government, between individual members

of society and the public institutions that these individuals work together to create and

maintain. The development of public libraries in the western United States, in particular,

was intimately connected to the growth of the communities in which they were situated,


since libraries were often seen by citizens as a prerogative of civil society, as a means of

instilling and maintaining social order, and as an expression of the cultural sophistication

of the community (Stauffer, 2007). The goal of this paper is to explore the history of the

Santa Rosa Public Library, a typical Western public library of the late 19th and early 20th

century. Along the way, it is hoped that the development of this institution will illustrate,

in microcosm, the forces that shaped the early history of the city of Santa Rosa,

California.

A Rural Metropolis

Santa Rosa’s earliest history is poorly documented, but according to the local

Catholic diocese, the area was given its name in 1828 by Fray Juan Amoros of Sonoma,

who baptized a young Indian woman on a creek bank on the feast day of Saint Rose of

Lima (August 30). In honor of the saint, Amoros named the girl Rosa and the creek Santa

Rosa (Barrett, n.d.). Shortly after, the Asistencia de Santa Rosa de Lima was established

on the site, with a house and chapel. Following the secularization of the California

missions in 1835, the outpost was abandoned (Pope, 1962).

In 1835, General Mariano Vallejo granted the site to his mother-in-law, María

Ignacio López de Carrillo, after the death of her husband. Her home was built in 1837 on

the site of the old church outpost, and in 1841, the property became the Rancho Cabeza

de Santa Rosa; in 1846, the first American settlers began to arrive (History of Sonoma

County, 1880). Following the death of Doña Carrillo, her daughter married David

Mallagh, who started a merchandise company in the home in 1851; the first post office

was also established there (Pope, 1962). (The adobe fell into ruin in the late 19th century

and is now at the center of a redevelopment controversy.)


Following California’s admission to the United States in 1850, settlers continued

to arrive, and the area’s population grew rapidly; the population in the 1860 census was

1,623, in 1870 2,898, and in 1880 3,616 (California State Department of Finance, n.d.).

The street grid was laid out in 1853; in 1854 Santa Rosa became the seat of Sonoma

County; the first fire department was established in 1861; the telegraph was introduced in

1864; the city was incorporated in 1868 (History of Sonoma County, 1880).

Over a period of only twenty years, therefore, the city grew from a few scattered

homesteads into the eighth-largest city in California, and it was necessary for all the usual

city institutions and services to be set up very quickly. This mirrored the situation in the

rest of the state. Until the discovery of gold in 1848, California was a sparsely populated

colonial backwater, but by 1850, its population had increased elevenfold (Held, 1963).

The Gold Rush brought statehood, vast new sources of wealth, and enormous population

growth in the cities, and public institutions had to be rapidly imported from the more

civilized eastern states. Among these institutions was the public library.

Ladies of the Club

While there are mentions in the record of short-lived attempts to establish a public

library in 1858 and 1859 (Baker, 1959), the first serious effort was made by the women

of Santa Rosa in the fall of 1868. Several of the more prominent ladies—including the

wives of some of the town founders, such as F.G. Hahman, an important early property

owner—organized a series of entertainments and performances to raise funds to buy

books for the Ladies’ Library Association. The effort received enthusiastic support from

the local newspapers; on December 19, the Sonoma Democrat praised the work of “those

ladies who have so self-sacrificingly devoted their time and talents” (“Library and Public


School,” 1868). The same article reported that “somewhat more than $300” had been

raised to purchase books, and that an order was being prepared for a New York

bookseller. Shortly after, the paper reprinted a passionate address delivered before the

Ladies’ Library Association:

In a small though well-appointed library, we should enjoy the philosophy of

Locke and Bacon; the scientific knowledge of Newton; the researches of

Humboldt; the moral essays of Hannah More; the sublime tragedies of

Shakespeare; the delightful tales of Walter Scott and Maria Edgworth; the

glowing prose of Washington Irving; the grand old epics of Homer and Virgin;

the exquisite poetry of Moore, Milton, Byron, Burns, Shelly, Longfellow, and

Mrs. Hemans. . . . An eminent man has said that he never entered a library

without a feeling of awe and veneration. (“Book-World”, 1869).

Clearly, the town ladies’ effort to create a public library enjoyed support from a

wide swath of Santa Rosa society, and the effort was rewarded when the library opened

on May 10th, 1869. This social library charged an initiation fee of $5.00 per member and

25 cents per month (History of the Santa Rosa Public Library, 1903).

Minutes from the regular meetings of the Ladies’ Library Association have

survived, and contain some information about the library’s holdings; for instance, the

minutes of the second meeting of June 2, 1869 report an order to D. Appleton & Co., of

New York, for subscriptions to the North British Review, Westminster Review, Edinburgh

Review, and Blackwood’s Magazine, and also that the remainder of the $300 was be used

for books. Also recorded are the donations of two books, one (Sunshine and Shadow,

author not recorded) given by the association’s president, William McCullough, and the


other (Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier) donated by a Robert Ferrall (Second Regular

Meeting, 1869).

This is the only known record of the holdings of the early library, and while it

represents a very small sample, it also indicates a fair degree of sophistication in the

tastes of the Association. The magazines are all British, with a radical philosophical bent;

the Westminster Review had recently been instrumental in the dissemination of Darwin’s

evolutionary theory. Whittier, on the other hand, had been a prominent antislavery

advocate and writer, well-known for Our Countrymen in Chains. This early library

association shows every sign of intending to grow quickly, and by the summer of 1869

they owned approximately 200 books (History of Sonoma County, 1880). Sadly, at this

point the efforts of the Ladies’ Library Association came to an abrupt end, for reasons

that are unclear; the August, September and October meetings adjourned for lack of a

quorum, and activity appears to have ceased in November (Santa Rosa Public Library,

Meeting Minutes). Shortly after, the books were given into the care of the association’s

librarian, local attorney Melville Johnson (“Public Library”, April 17, 1875).

A New Beginning

Following this strong but abortive early effort, a new library movement began in

1875, again with substantial editorial support from the newspapers. The quote used as the

epigraph to this essay, from the Sonoma Democrat of January 30, 1875, is a typical

example; the article points out that Santa Rosa should have a library, as it hoped to

become an educational center, and also suggests that the collection of 1869 could serve as

the nucleus of a new institution. On March 13, the new Santa Rosa Library Association

was created by a meeting at the courthouse, with John G. Pressley, an attorney, elected


president; a Major John Brown, vice president; and T.B. Dalton and F. G. Nagle,

secretaries (“Library Meeting”, 1875). About 40 people joined the association at this

time. At the next meeting, on March 20, 55 more people joined, and the dues for the

library were agreed upon; the initiation fee was set at $2.50, and the monthly dues as 50

cents for men and 25 cents for women (“Library”, March 27, 1875). 56 more people

joined at the third meeting of March 27 (“Library”, April 3, 1875).

Following these successful meetings, the Democrat reported that Melville

Johnson, the custodian of the 1869 collection, had agreed to give over the books to the

trustees of the new library; in addition to these “two hundred volumes of well-selected

books, in excellent condition”, over a hundred more had been promised as donations

from the trustees (“Public Library”, April 17, 1875). The article went on:

All appreciate the necessity of good books but few are able to purchase them; by

co-operation a library, in reach of all, may be obtained at no heavy cost to any

individual. By the payment of a small sum a certificate of membership is

obtained—a light, monthly tax then puts at the disposal of a family a library such

as the wealthiest could barely afford to purchase. The habit of reading, with

access to the best literature of the day, corrects the tendency in individuals who go

little abroad, and communities who know little of others, to overestimate

themselves. It rubs off the corners of their prejudices and keeps them abreast with

the progress and advancement of the outside world. (“Public Library”, April 17,

1875)

This quote amply demonstrates the impulses that drove so many library

movements in the West in the mid-19th century: a desire to educate and broaden the


minds of members of the community, and to connect with the wider culture outside the

town borders, through cooperative effort. Also evident is a shift of control of the library

movement from women to men; the same article mentions planning being done by “the

Board of Trustees and their admirable allies, the ladies, who have so far accomplished

most of the work done”. The organizing work having been completed by the women of

the town, the new association was to be controlled by the men, as were most of the local

institutions.

The library came together quickly after these preliminaries. In May it was

announced that the library had arranged to take four rooms on the second floor of Santa

Rosa’s new Masonic Hall, which was then in the advanced planning stages (“Library

Rooms”, 1875). Construction began on June 17, 1875 (“Masonic Hall”, 1875), and the

library moved into the new space in December (Thompson, 1877). The new library

rooms quickly became a center of social activity in Santa Rosa, “popular with readers and

chess players” (LeBaron, et al., 1985).

There appears to be little record of everyday happenings at the library during its

time at the Masonic Hall, from 1875 until 1884. Melville Dozier, a science and

mathematics professor who was principal of Santa Rosa High School (Guinn, 1907) was

appointed as librarian in 1879; the library at this time was reported to be in a

“flourishing” condition (“New Librarian”, 1879). In 1880, the Santa Rosa Library

Association voted to abolish the $2.50 initiation fee, and to convert to a flat fifty-cent

monthly fee for both men and women, in order “to enable every family in Santa Rosa to

have at least one member of the Association.” The Democrat article announcing this

change also describes the library at this point:


The Library consists of upwards of 900 volumes, all well selected, and embracing

works of every description. The reading and chess rooms are well supplied with

periodicals and newspapers, both of the Eastern and Pacific Coast States. (“Santa

Rosa Library”, 1880).

From Private to Public

Having grown from 200 volumes to more than 900 in only five years, clearly

Santa Rosa’s social library was indeed “flourishing”. However, its time as a social library

was coming to an end. In 1884, a prominent businessman and member of the city council,

Col. Mark L. McDonald—who had helped to create Santa Rosa’s water system and

financed the city’s streetcar network (History of Sonoma County, 1880)—began a drive

to have the city take over the library and make it a free public institution (Finley, 1937;

Thompson, 1884). With support from the newspapers and local women’s organizations,

the takeover was accomplished quickly, and McDonald became president of the first

board of trustees. Melville Dozier, Judge G.A. Johnson, A.W. Riley and Robert A.

Thompson, the county historian, made up the rest of the board; a Mrs. F. Binckley was

hired as the first public librarian (Finley, 1937). The city council agreed to provide the

library with two rooms on the second floor of the new City Hall, which had been built on

the town square the previous year (Illustrated History, 1889); by 1887, the library had

already begun to outgrow its area and received additional space in a building expansion

(LeBaron, et al., 1985).

The new location in City Hall, while it made sense for the newly public

institution, soon led to a difficult situation with a neighbor. After the 1887 addition, the

city’s fire department was moved into the space below the library. Patrons were soon


startled by the fire bell on a regular basis; but, more importantly, the fire department’s

horses were stabled directly below the reading rooms. Before long, the persistent smell

forced Mrs. Binckley to ask the fire department to move the horses; the firemen replied

that the horses and engines needed to be kept together, and that at any rate, the fire

department was more important than the library. The situation escalated until the city

council decided to separate the two agencies.

Land was found and a new library building was constructed in 1889, several

blocks away from City Hall (City of Santa Rosa, 1889); however, the library board

refused to accept the new building, because they had not been consulted on the move and

felt the new building was too far from the center of town. Once the controversy spilled

over into the newspapers, the community supported the library; many letters to the editor

appeared, including one from the famous horticulturalist Luther Burbank. Faced with

such opposition, the city council surrendered and gave the new building to the fire

department (LeBaron, et al., 1985).

During this period the library continued to be popular. Mrs. Binckley’s monthly

reports from May through December of 1888 have survived, and show that the library

served an average of 41 people per day and checked out an average of 1025 books per

month during this period. About 70 percent of the circulation was fiction; about 15

percent was juvenile fiction; history, travel, essays, and poetry made up 2 to 3 percent

each; and the balance was divided between biography, science and miscellaneous works.

Table 1 includes the complete figures. (See Appendix A for a typical monthly report from

the period.)


Table 1 Santa Rosa Public Library reports for 1888

Source: Original reports hand-written by Mrs. F. Binckley (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1888).

Mon

th

Cou

ntry

ta

xes

($)

Fine

s ($

)

Expe

nses

($

) A

vera

ge

atte

ndan

ce

Tota

l boo

ks

regi

ster

ed

Fict

ion

Juve

nile

His

tory

Bio

grap

hy

Trav

el

Scie

nce

Essa

ys

Poet

ry

Mis

c

May 0.25 5.10 40 940 708 118 20 11 26 11 24 22

June 0.50 4.40 25 1019 764 135 18 19 25 13 11 28 6

July 2.00 2.30 25 996 692 205 18 9 24 14 22 3 9

August 0.25 3.40 26 567 441 66 17 7 10 6 16 1 3

September 1.25 2.40 0.10 53 968 636 208 12 11 27 8 46 16 4

October 2.00 5.05 50 1190 768 289 29 18 27 9 31 11 8

November 0.25 2.20 57 1215 833 277 12 9 31 8 25 14 6

December 1.75 3.65 52 1301 834 323 23 16 38 12 32 14 9

The library also appears to have been quite aggressive in its book purchases

during this period. A number of bids from book suppliers for 1888 and 1889 have

survived, from dealers such as C.A. Wright and J. Dewing in San Francisco. During this

time, the library also began a subscription to the works of the American historian Hubert

Howe Bancroft. By this time the library was regularly spending $200-300 on each

semiannual order of books, adding hundreds of volumes to the collection every year.

Under New Management

In 1890, Mrs. Binckley left the library, and a replacement needed to be found.

Several names were put forth, and after several rounds of voting, the trustees selected


their first professional librarian, Bertha Kumli (Santa Rosa Public Library, Meeting

Minutes). Born in Minnesota about 1862, Kumli moved to Santa Rosa with her family

before her 18th birthday (Ancestry.com, 2005). After being hired by her hometown library

in 1890, she left in 1896, and then returned in 1898; she remained at Santa Rosa until

1905, when she left to work for the California State Library (History of the Santa Rosa

Public Library, 1903).

When and where Kumli obtained her library education is uncertain, but it is clear

from her reports and other documents that she brought a level of competence and

professionalism to the library that had previously been absent. From her first report in

June 1890, for example, she provides far more comprehensive circulation statistics,

breaking down the daily numbers by genre and providing a greater level of analysis

(Santa Rosa Public Library, 1890). Another example is her project to catalog the library

collection, which does not seem to have been systematically organized until then.

Kumli’s work was completed in 1902 and resulted in a standard dictionary catalog,

containing “over 6,000 books and . . . several thousand volumes of government reports

and documents” (“To Library Patrons”, 1902). She also prepared a clear and

comprehensive set of instructions for the catalog that were published in the newspaper.

Finally, from 1901 to 1904 she was deeply involved in the project to obtain funding for

the city’s Carnegie library.

Most important, however, is the high regard in which Kumli was eventually held

by her patrons and fellow citizens. An excellent example of this is an anonymous letter

that was placed in a time capsule in the cornerstone of the new building in 1903, praising

the “noble character” of


. . . our able Librarian, Miss Anna Bertha Kumli, who has been a source of

inspiration to all who come to the Library. If she were to be alive at the opening

of this box, no matter what the conditions of life at that time might be, she would

be equal to them, and would at once be useful and inspiring to young and old as

she is to us here in 1903 at Santa Rosa. Much of the advancement that far off time

may know will be no doubt helped by her inspiration to the youth of our time, and

even if her name then be unknown, the power of her life and influence will not be

wasted. (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1903, Cornerstone file).

After she finished overseeing the library’s move to its new home, Kumli left to

work as a library organizer for James Gillis of the California State Library. She traveled

extensively in the Gold Country, advising and assisting communities in the details of

setting up libraries of their own (Passet, 1994). From the success she enjoyed in this

endeavor, it appears that this prediction came true for many people in rural inland

California.

Change in the Air

Kumli’s tenure was marked by a steady increase in the library’s attendance and

circulation, as well as in the variety of books that were used by patrons. For example, in

the monthly report for June 1890, Kumli reports a total of 809 books issued (June appears

to have typically been a slow month; circulation was nearly double this in the winter

months). Table 2 gives the breakdown of categories.


Table 2 Santa Rosa Free Library Report, June 2 to June 27, 1890

Source: original report hand-written by Bertha Kumli (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1890).

Number of books issued 809 Fiction 541 Juvenile fiction 159 History 22 Travel 17 Biography 4 Essays 31 Science 16 Poetry 4 Miscellaneous 15 Percentage of fiction issued 87% Average number of books issued per day 32.4 Attendance 1882 Average attendance per day 75.3 No. of books in the Library mended 17

By 1903, however, the library’s circulation had nearly doubled. The annual report

for June 30, 1902 to July 1, 1903 reports a total of 1745 books issued in June of 1903

(again, the library’s slowest month). Table 3 gives the categories for circulation.


Table 3 Santa Rosa Public Library circulation figures for June, 1903

Source: 1903 annual report typewritten and signed by Bertha Kumli (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1903, Annual report).

Philosophy 12 Religion 33 Sociology 17 Natural Science 62 Useful Arts 6 Fine Arts 24 Literature 118 History 137 Travel 95 Biography 66 Fiction 864 Juvenile 311 Total 1745

Fiction—adult and juvenile combined—made up 67.3% of the total circulation in

June 1903, a small drop from the figure of 87% for 1890. This suggests that the

readership was becoming more sophisticated and was making more use of the library for

education in addition to entertainment. It is also notable that the circulation

approximately doubled during this time. The population of Santa Rosa in 1890 was 5220;

I estimate the population in 1903 as 7016, based on the population of 6673 in 1900 and of

7817 in 1910 (California State Department of Finance, n.d.). Therefore, the population

increased by only 49.7% during this period.

One possible way to examine this increase in utilization of the library would be to

look at the ratio of total circulation to population. In 1890, the total number of books

issued was 809, for a population of 5220, yielding a ratio of 1 book for every 6.5 people.

For 1903, we can use the estimated 1903 population of 7016 and the total circulation for


that year of 1745 to yield a ratio of 1 book for every 4 people. This suggests that

circulation per capita increased by approximately 61% over this period.

Therefore, it is clear that Santa Rosa citizens were increasingly taking advantage

of the facilities that the library provided; this may be due to improvements in social,

cultural, and educational opportunities that came with increased population. However, it

is also true that the library’s collection in 1903 was far more diverse than in its early

days. The 1903 annual report includes figures for the total collection, broken down by

category. This list is reproduced in Table 4.

Table 4 Santa Rosa Public Library, books by category, 1903

Source: 1903 annual report (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1903, Annual report).

General works 93 Philosophy 147 Religion 263 Sociology 373 Philology 37 Natural Science 271 Useful Arts 156 Fine Arts 141 Literature 827 History 682 Travel 432 Biography 731 Fiction 1529 Juvenile Fiction 353 Bound Periodicals 609 Government Documents 6374 Total 13016

Disregarding government documents, fiction and juvenile fiction combined

therefore made up only 28.3% of the collection by 1903, despite constituting just over


two-thirds of circulation. As always, it is clear that fiction was still by far the most

popular genre, despite its proportion of circulation dropping significantly over the years.

The library certainly made efforts to maintain a diverse collection during this

period. A number of the library’s book orders from the 1890’s have survived, and they

show a great effort to cater to a variety of tastes. One example is the library’s year-end

order for December 2, 1891, which was placed with A.C. McClurg & Co., a major

bookseller in Chicago (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1891). The library ordered 122 books

for a total cost of $159.62. The books chosen fall into all the categories used by the

library. Table 5 is a list of some representative works, with the categories into which they

would have fit. Other orders have survived from more local booksellers such as William

Doxey of San Francisco.


Table 5 Sample works from December 2, 1891 book order for Santa Rosa Public Library

Source: original handwritten order form from A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1891).

Category Books Fiction Stockton, Rudder Grange

Barrie, Auld Licht Idylls Sewell, Black Beauty

Juvenile fiction Miss Toosey’s Mission Laddie Ewing, The Great Emergency and 9 others

History Lane-Poole, Story of the Moors in Spain Allen, Outline of Christian History Rawlinson, The Origin of Nations Baird, History of the Huguenot Emigration to America Coffin, Marching to Victory

Religion Clarke, Ten Great Religions Alden, God in His World Hale, How to Do It

Travel Stoddard, Across Russia O’Rell, A Frenchman in America

Biography Ireland, Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle Bolton, Successful Women

Essays Lamb, 5 books

Science Milne, Earthquakes Spencer, Data of Ethics and First Principles

Poetry Poems of John Godfrey Saxe Shelley, Poetical Works Wordsworth, Poetical Works

A similar effort toward comprehensiveness and variety is shown by the various

newspaper and magazine subscriptions bought by the library at this time. Kumli had

subscribed to the San Francisco Chronicle and Evening Bulletin by at least 1891, as


renewal orders have survived from 1892. The library also purchased subscriptions to a

wide variety of magazines; one order, placed on June 17, 1893 with San Francisco

booksellers Johnson & Emigh, lists the following (Santa Rosa Public Library, 1893):

• Harper’s Young People • Harper’s Monthly • Harper’s Weekly • Harper’s Bazaar • Century • Review of Reviews • Scribner’s • St. Nicholas • Cosmopolitan • North American Review • Popular Science Monthly • Outing • Overland Monthly • Forum • Critic • Life • Youth’s Companion • Scientific American • Art Amateur • Literary World • Atlantic Monthly

It is evident that the Santa Rosa Public Library was making a substantial effort to

grow and to cater to the increasing diversity and sophistication of its clientele. At this

point, however, the library was still operating out of its rooms on the second floor of City

Hall. Clearly, this growth could not continue indefinitely without a significant expansion

of the available space, and so in 1901 the trustees began looking at the next major step in

the library’s evolution—obtaining a building from Andrew Carnegie.

“A Credit to the City of Roses”

In November of 1901, a local businessman and property owner named Nelson

Carr surprised the library trustees with a donation of $1,000, and as the library had been


in need of space for some time, it was proposed to use the money to purchase land for a

new library building (“A Generous Gift”, 1901), although in the end it was used to

purchase over 500 books (“A Vote of Thanks”, 1901). However, the idea lived on, and

soon the trustees began planning to request a grant from industrialist and philanthropist

Andrew Carnegie, who had been gaining fame for some years for providing hundreds of

library buildings around the country. At the city council meeting of December 3, 1901,

the mayor was authorized to ask Carnegie for $35,000 (later reduced to $20,000) to build

a new library (“For A New Library”, 1901).

Following this resolution, the plan came together quickly. In July of 1902, the

trustees accepted the deeds to two plots of land, on the west side of the downtown area,

that had been donated for the future home of the library (“Trustees Accept Deeds”,

1902); immediately after, several architects were solicited for designs. Finally, on

September 2, at the library board’s monthly meeting, a letter was received from

Carnegie’s agent, R.A. Franks:

I am in receipt of your favor of the 22nd inst., enclosing copy of resolutions

of your city council, which is entirely satisfactory. From your letter of July 26th I

note that site for the proposed library building has been acquired, which

completes the fulfillment of all conditions attached to Mr. Carnegie’s gift of

$20,000 to your city for the erection of a library building.

The funds on this account are now available, and will be awarded in

installments of $5,000 each, as needed from time to time during the course of

construction. Remittances will be forwarded from this office upon the receipt of


requests signed by the president and treasurer of your library board, accompanied

by architects’ certificate. (“Library Trustees”, 1902)

With that, the plans proceeded apace. On September 9, the winning design, by

Sacramento architect Ernest M. Hoen (who had grown up in Santa Rosa) was chosen

from the six submitted (“Hoen Is The Architect”, 1902). The new library would be built

of gray basalt and include reading, book stack, lecture, and children’s rooms, as well as

offices, service space and two museums. The construction contract was awarded on

December 13 to William Peacock of San Francisco (“Contract Awarded”, 1902). In April

the cornerstone was laid, and the library opened in early 1904 to great acclaim. Figure 1

shows the new library as it appeared after completion.

Figure 1 Carnegie building, Santa Rosa Public Library, circa 1904

Source: Santa Rosa Then and Now, http://www.srtan.com/wLibraryPre1906.htm


Downfall, Rebirth, and Decline

The community’s jubilation over their new library, sadly, turned out to be short-

lived. On April 18, 1906, at 5:12 am, Northern California was struck by the most

powerful earthquake in its modern history. San Francisco, the largest city on the west

coast, was largely reduced to rubble by the quake and the resulting fires, which burned

unchecked for four days due to the disruption of the city’s water supply. While San

Francisco was quickly rebuilt, it never regained its former dominance as a financial and

cultural capital; the balance of power in California society shifted permanently to Los

Angeles.

Many other Bay Area communities suffered enormous damage, with Santa Rosa

perhaps receiving the worst blow of all; nearly all of the buildings in the city’s downtown

were leveled by the quake. The new library, while not destroyed completely, suffered a

partial collapse. Figure 2 shows the damage to the library from the quake.


Figure 2 Santa Rosa Public Library, after the 1906 earthquake

Source: Santa Rosa Then and Now, http://www.srtan.com/1906/w1906_05.htm

For some weeks, the library remained closed while the damage was assessed and

an estimate made of the cost to repair the building. The library trustees decided to ask

Andrew Carnegie to assist with funding, and the reply came from Carnegie’s secretary on

June 28, 1906:

Your favor received through Judge Morrow informing us that the library building

had been damaged by the earthquake and that it will take six thousand nine

hundred dollars to put it in former condition, Mr. Carnegie will be glad to pay this

sum, and has instructed his cashier, R.A. Franks, Home Trust Co., Hoboken, N.J.,


accordingly. Please communicate with Mr. Franks about payments. (“Carnegie

Will Repair Damages”, 1906).

With Carnegie’s assistance, the reconstruction of the building proceeded quickly;

the library collection was temporarily moved into the undamaged basement while the

upper floors were restored. The library finally reopened on November 30, 1906 (“Library

Has Been Reopened”, 1906).

After this catastrophe, the library building served the community for over fifty

years, though not without some difficulties. The library’s rapid growth continued, and

there were significant growing pains from time to time; in particular, in 1925, the steady

expansion of the children’s section required the remodeling of part of the basement into a

“Children’s Room” (Finley, 1937). Eventually, in 1958, inquiries were made into the

possibility of remodeling the building to accommodate a larger collection, but it was

decided that the design had been substandard from the beginning and would be difficult

to alter (Rapp, Christensen & Foster, 1958).

Finally, in 1960, after several years of slow deterioration, the city Building

Department, along with a structural engineer and the state fire marshal, reported that the

library was in a structurally hazardous condition. The city manager concluded that the

building was in danger of collapse and should never have been rebuilt after the 1906

earthquake, and ordered the library closed (Office of the City Manager, 1960). The

collection was shortly moved to a temporary location; in April 1964 a bond issue was

approved to raise funds for a new building, and the old Carnegie library was subsequently

demolished. Construction began on the same site in September 1965; the new building

opened in February 1967 and is still in use today.


Ironically, at the same time that the Carnegie building was preparing to meet its

end, the library’s institutional fate was sealed as well. In December of 1964, a plan was

approved for the consolidation of Santa Rosa and the county’s other city libraries with the

Sonoma County Library, which had been established independently in 1945. The

consolidation became final in July 1965, and on its completion the new building became

the central branch and reference center for a county library system encompassing twelve

cities throughout Sonoma County—an arrangement that persists to this day.

History in Miniature

This paper began with the thesis that a library’s history could provide a

convenient framework within which to observe the forces that drive the development of

its associated community. In the case of the Santa Rosa Public Library, it is clear that the

library movement had an early and strong presence in the new community, from the

beginnings of the town in the 1850’s. Despite the failure of at least two early attempts,

the people of Santa Rosa continued to work for the creation of their library, and made

good use of it once it was solidly established.

It is also apparent that the development of the library, from a social reading room

operating by subscription to a free public institution, followed the development of public

services in general. In the 1880’s, as city government grew more complex with the

growing size and importance of the town, it made sense for library services to be

consolidated with other services underneath the government’s umbrella (literally, in the

case of the library’s dispute with the fire department). Finally, the growing sophistication

of the library’s users, and by extension the city’s population, can also be inferred from

the ever-increasing size and diversity of the library’s collection, as well as circulation


figures showing that the public’s per-capita usage of the library increased substantially,

well ahead of population growth.

In all of these areas, the larger historical trends driving the development and

growing complexity of this community can be seen operating in miniature upon that most

public of city institutions—the public library.


Appendix A An example of a monthly report, from June 1888.


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