LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

The Costa Mesa Library started humbly in 1923 with just 200 books in a

building that opened only one hour a day for three days every week.

Before arriving at its current Park Avenue location, it hopped around the

city every time the number of patrons beat the amount of space.

Most of the details about the library’s history come from the journal

excerpts of an early librarian in Costa Mesa named Sarah Conant, as

preserved by the Costa Mesa Historical Society. Some also come from

excerpts of a history by Dorothy McClinch, a former library employee.

The first version of a Costa Mesa library began in 1923. A local group

called the Friday Afternoon Club formed a committee which was responsible

for finding a location -- an upper floor of a bank building at the

intersection of Newport Boulevard and 18th Street. Committee members

gathered donations of books and Conant’s journal states that 311 people

borrowed books a total of 10,871 times in 1924. A year later the library

moved, but just to a different corner of that intersection.

Five months later, with the help of locals W. Carl Spencer and Fannie

Bixby Spencer, the library moved yet again to a facility behind Newport

Boulevard, near Broadway and 18th streets. Fannie Spencer is credited

with having significantly helped start the city’s library.

By 1929, the three-hour-a-week facility had expanded to six hours a

day, five days a week. The number of visitors grew. Space became limited.

And in 1950, the library underwent another overhaul as they moved to a

Center Street location which it outgrew eight years later.

By then, children in summer reading programs and adult visitors

sometimes sat on the floor.

So in 1960, the library moved again to a nearby plot also on Center

Street. There are records of the facility gaining more study desks, more

shelves and special lights for students who would spend hours at the

library.

Five years later, the Mesa Verde branch opened as the Center Street

branch continued to grow.

And in 1987, the original library moved to its current

architecturally-ornate location on Park Avenue. The project cost $1

million and was dedicated to Donald Dungan, the city’s first lawyer.

Center Street “was just an outdated building and it had served us well

for many years,” said Dolores Madrigal, branch manager at Park Avenue. “I

feel nostalgia about the building. It was a nice building.”

There was no carpet, which was, for Madrigal, not so bad.

“It was an old-fashioned building with old-fashioned ways,” she added.

“And some of us old-fashioned librarians liked it. But if we had to move

out of this building, we’d probably feel the same way.”

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at young.chang@latimes.com; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.