By Margaret Badger and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The library paid $20 a month for its share of the Land and Ferry Company building
The recent announcement that the Sausalito Library is once again open to the public on a limited schedule brought to mind the 115-year history of this beloved institution. Founded in 1906, the library actually opened the following year on the second floor of the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company building on Water Street (now Bridgeway). In 1909 the library took over half of the second floor of the Bank of Sausalito building at what is now 729 Bridgeway, the home of Gene Hiller Menswear.
Fifteen years ago, the Historical Society newsletter celebrated the library’s centennial, and Margaret Badger detailed the long and winding story of the library from in the Society’s newsletter. Here’s a lightly edited excerpt from Margaret’s report:
For sixty-five years the Sausalito Library was housed in one downtown location. It stayed in the Bank Building (later the City Hall) until 1974 when it moved to its present location in the auditorium of the old Central School (now Civic Center) at 420 Litho Street. Through all of these years the staff, the patrons and the collection were challenged to work within very limited space.
For twenty-six years of its life in the Bank Building, the Library was in one room. The other rooms on the second floor of the building were used for doctors' offices. So when in 1935 the doctors moved out and the library expanded to occupy the entire second floor, the situation changed very much for the better. It was not long, however, before the library again needed more space. In the 1940s, with the coming of thousands of workers to Marinship, demands on the library increased to the point where a small branch was set up in the new Marinship housing.
The need for adequate library space was not limited to Sausalito. In the early 1900s, small towns around California were working with Carnegie philanthropists to establish free-standing library buildings.
Did Sausalito make an effort to receive Carnegie money to build a free-standing library? The pieces of evidence that we have — and there may be more not yet found — show some early awareness of the Carnegie opportunity. In the 1921-22 Annual Report a reference is made that a request for money from Carnegie was given "no favorable reply."
We do not know for a fact why Sausalito did not get a Carnegie grant, but we do know that by 1917 and the start of World War I funds were much more scarce, and that the last grant given in California for a library was in 1921.
Meanwhile, growth of the Sausalito Library collection was controlled by its location and size. The City Engineer forbade any more weight on the second floor and required that for every book added, one needed to go. But it was not until the 1960s that the issue of a new site for a larger library for Sausalito came up for public debate. Once more, the confounding issue was securing a site for a library building. A strong group of library supporters proposed a building on city land that was at the time leased to Herb Madden, Sr. Opponents, including Madden, felt strongly that the waterfront should have only waterfront usage and others pointed out that the pro-posed Aaron Green building, if constructed on the waterfront, would forever block one of the best Bay/City vistas in the region. Opponents also argued that a new library would be better located in New Town outside of the increasingly busy downtown tourist traffic. Robin Sweeny led a heated campaign to preserve the waterfront site (now known as Gabrielson Park) and to locate the library elsewhere. Herb Madden Sr. tilted the scale by offering his leased land at no cost to the City for a park, but at a price fora library! The measure to locate a free-standing library on the waterfront site was defeated.
Another measure was put before Sausalito voters two years later to acquire a former railroad station (located between Caledonia and Bridgeway across the street from present-day Robin Sweeny Park) for a building site. It was also hotly debated and richly imbued with local passion before its defeat. Over time, many ideas about where to put the library were aired including citizen proposals to house the books on one of two recycled ferry boats, the Charles Van Damme, which was actually aground outside of City limits, or the Berkeley.
In January 1975 the library's search for a more spacious home was finally realized when the former Central School was transformed into the town's Civic Center. Although locating the library in the former school auditorium was considered temporary at the time, after a few years its permanence was established. While less impressive than a Carnegie Classic Revival-style structure, and lacking the glamour of a Bay view, still the chosen library location hidden inconspicuously inside the old Central School has worked well. At this location its caregivers — a devoted library staff and the Friends of the Library — have brought the library proudly to its 100th year and the community remains well served into the 21st century.