California's first public library was established in Monterey in 1849. Colton Hall schoolmaster the Reverend Dr. Samuel H. Willey, in his Thirty Years in California, claimed credit for organizing the library, and other individuals were substantially involved. Civic leaders established Monterey Library Association and persuading citizens to purchase $40 shares in a public library which would "...afford amusement, entertainment, and profit to a large class of people who, without its aid, would waste their time in the frivolities and questionable pastimes so prevalent in our State."
From the sale of stock, the Association raised $1,500, which was used to purchase the first collection of books. Monterey's first American alcalde, Walter Colton, who had returned to the East, arranged for the collection of about 900 books to be shipped around Cape Horn to Monterey. The original collection featured a well chosen variety of works of history, theology, biography, poetry, science and medicine, travel journals, legal and political writings, reference works including the Encyclopedia Americana and Webster's Dictionary. There were about 250 works of fiction featuring American classics by DeFoe and Cooper, 18th Century English classics, and a heavy dose of popular contemporary writer Charles Dickens. About one-quarter of the books were written in Spanish.
The first library was housed in El Cuartel, a Mexican government building built in 1840, which
was located on what is now Munras Avenue, just south of Simoneau Plaza. There was a reading room stocked with books, newspapers, magazines, maps and government
documents. Shareholders were allowed to borrow books, but others could gain this privilege by paying a monthly subscriber's fee of one dollar and by leaving with the
librarian a cash deposit equal to twice the value of the book being borrowed. Almost as soon as the library was established, Monterey suffered a series of economic
misfortunes, not the least of which was mass depopulation owing to the Gold Rush. In 1874, the library moved to Colton Hall where, because of lapses in the operation of local
government, the library was kept under lock and key. Later, the library was moved to the school house which burned to the ground in 1893, destroying most of the library's
collection. In 1901, Monterey's public library reorganized under the auspices of a ladies' literary society. Soliciting book donations and holding fundraising events,
the volunteers were able to keep the library open two afternoons a week in various storefronts on Alvarado Street.
In 1906, the Monterey Library Association turned over its assets to the City of Monterey. With a piece of real estate donated
by Mrs. A.M. Freitas and a building grant from Andrew Carnegie, the Monterey Public Library
opened its doors at 425 Van Buren Street in 1911. The new library was designed by prolific California architect William Weeks, in the Mission Revival style, and was home for Monterey Public Library for the next 40 years. It
featured separate reading rooms for adults and children and a basement smoking room with a fireplace for gentlemen only. On June 30, 1911, the Monterey Daily Cypress
predicted that the new gentlemen's smoking room would be quite popular with laborers because the entrance was situated so that a fellow could drop in for a read and a smoke
without having to dress up. Today, the Carnegie building, which has been expanded and remodeled, is home to the library for Monterey Institute of International Studies.
During the process of selecting an appropriate site for the Carnegie building, the residents of
New Monterey made a strong bid for locating the library in their neighborhood. When the decision was made to accept the downtown Van Buren Street site was made,
what began as a protest by New Monterey residents, sustained itself as a permanent lobby for library services in the city's outlying areas. In 1913, Miss Ella Thomas
consented to act as custodian over a New Monterey branch library, established in her Lighthouse Avenue office. But because the branch was just set up for the purpose of circulating books,
had no reading room, and was open only five hours per week, it was less than satisfactory.
It took two decades of citizen persuasion, but in 1931, a New Monterey branch library was built at 700 Laine Street, near the present site of the Bayview School. The New Monterey branch library
was in operation for twenty years before it re-entered the limelight. In 1953, the City Council proposed to close the branch in a cost-savings measure. The proposal met with letters of protest, petitions,
and stormy public meetings until it was finally decreed that the branch would close permanently on January 1, 1954. The Council made its decision a bit more palatable to the angry citizens by announcing that
a bookmobile would be purchased to provide even better library services to people of the outlying areas, including those in New Monterey. The bookmobile went into service in 1956.
In the meanwhile, the main library, originally designed to serve a population of 5,000 found itself serving a population of 17,500. The collection had grown from 3,500 volumes to 46,000 volumes in a building planned for a
maximum of 20,000 books. So, in 1950 the voters of Monterey passed a $350,000 bond measure for the construction of a new home for the Monterey Public Library.
The new building was erected on an odd-shaped site located at the corner of Madison and Pacific Streets. The structure was designed in the Second Bay Tradition by the firm of noted California architect William Wurster and is one of Monterey's outstanding attractions for people interested in California architecture.
Second Bay Tradition is more of a philosophy than a style because Wurster's approach to architecture was highly personal. He believed that each building should be unique, not beholden stylistically to an architectural precedent; that a building should be modern
in terms of arrangement of space, use of materials, and application of technology; that a building's characteristics be determined primarily by its location; and that its appearance be in close harmony with its surroundings.
As an example of Second Bay Tradition architecture, the building was a complete success. The design employs a system of radiating steel beams which allow for 16-ft ceilings without the use of interior support
walls and floor to ceiling windows for abundant natural light. Exposed
I-beams with steel columns support the mezzanine for an effect that it light, open and airy and yet makes no attempt to conceal the structural components of the building. To mitigate the "steel and glass" on the outside of the building which is housed
in an architecturally eclectic neighborhood which includes important historic buildings and Mexican-era adobes, the architect used a system of concrete buttresses, placed at
16-ft intervals, and recessed the steel-framed glass windows for a lovely sculpted effect. The concrete walls were coated with a creamy stucco and painted white to
suggest, but not copy, the look of local adobes. The building has long, low, horizontal lines with a balcony over the entry, for an effect which is interestingly
reminiscent of El Cuartel. The awkward pentagonal shape of the building site was not in any way altered to more easily
accommodate a building. Instead, the shape of the building takes its cue from the site, closely hugging the lot line along its Madison and Pacific Street fronts. Upon its opening in 1952, the new library building
received national attention and high praise. In commissioning a building of such outstanding architectural merit, the citizens of Monterey made a lasting statement about the extent to which the community
library is valued.
