A brief history of the Fort Bragg Library

On June 18, 1890, the Women's Christian Temperance Union "decided to provide a reading room for the public as soon as possible. The ladies are wide awake to the situation and mean to do aggressive work this year". A library was established in Mrs. Powell's White House Hotel, a temperance establishment at 335 North Franklin.

In 1910 the Union Lumber Company established a library for the men in their cookhouse/boarding house recognizing that "anything done to make the surroundings...more refining will bear fruit."

On October 12, 1910, the City of Fort Bragg established a tax rate set at 75 cents per $100, with 10 cents of that going toward building and maintaining of a public library. In November a Library Board was formed and H.A. Weller donated use of two rooms in his building at the corner of Main and Laurel for temporary quarters. At that time the collections of the WCTU and Union Lumber Company libraries were donated to the City. Food sales, white elephant sales, talent shows, films, and door-to-door solicitations brought in donations of money, and prominent citizens and business people pledged monthly sums toward the building project. The first cash donation was from Mr. Cavanaugh, the editor of the Advocate, in the amount of $5. The library opened on January 8, 1911 in the Jefferson Building on Laurel Street with Mrs. Dixon as Librarian. Mrs. Perkins, the Ukiah Librarian came to the coast for two days to help organize the collection, and congratulated the City on all that was accomplished. On March 15th, 117 books were ordered from the $68.25 proceeds of a food sale and 130 library cards had been issued as of that date. (Fort Bragg population was 2408 according the Federal Census.)

On April 26, 1911, the Union Lumber Company offered to donate a lot 30 x 50 feet for the building of a library on the conditions that plans be drawn up by January 1, 1912. Ed Holmes, a designer and builder, completed these plans and on January 8, 1913 the library was occupied and described as "one of the finest libraries in Northern California, a modern library in a modern city." It stood next to the Guest House owned by the Union Lumber Company and flourished under the care of librarians Mrs. Frank Roberts, Mrs. Wright, Daisy Dodge, and Virginia Barrett.

The City of Fort Bragg voted to join the newly formed County Library and on July 1, 1966 became the first city to be a part of that system.

The City and County worked together closely, and when, on September 20, 1987, an arsonist destroyed the building and its contents, they began steps to restore quality library service to the coast. Immediately after the fire, a temporary facility was established in the Old Fort Building and a citizens committee began to explore financing and possible sites. Operation Phoenix, a fund raising project of the Friends of the Library, began its rise from the ashes and books poured in from all over the US and Canada. $80,000 and 20,000 books, worth close to a half million dollars, were realized from this effort.

For nearly two years the staff labored in the Old Fort Building, without heat or water, to re-catalog the approximately 1,200 books that had been checked out at the time of the fire, and to process the thousands of books donated.  Parked alongside the building was a "book van" borrowed from the county school district and, later, the county bookmobile.  These limited capacity vans provided the only library services during this time.

Once remodeling by Matson Construction was completed on the purchased Fairlee Mortuary building, the spacious new library opened to the public on May 25, 1989.  This new facility was presided over by the new Library Director, Henry Bates, and branch manager Sylvia Kozak-Budd.

Despite community effort and Friends of the Library help, the library faced serious budget cuts in the early 1990's, forcing a complete staff lay-off and reduction of open hours to just 15 hours per week.  At the end of nearly two months, only one staff person was re-hired.  These budget crises continued throughout the decade and the library was restored to normal staffing only in 2000.  To that time, the Friends of the Library had been paying the salary of a half-time position.

Early in 1996 the library installed the first Internet computer terminal.   Today, there are seven public, high-speed terminals, including a Spanish language terminal and wireless access.  There is also a designated public terminal in the genealogy room.

By 1999, the Fort Bragg branch had completed the laborious transition to a computer-based system and began it's first computerized checkouts.  Suddenly, the collections of all Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma county systems were immediately searchable and could be instantly requested on an inter-library loan basis.  The holdings of the nine Bay Area county systems were also available through the SuperSearch system.

With the reassignment, then retirement, of Sylvia Kozak-Budd, the branch saw a succession of three branch managers between 1999 and 2001.  Robin Watters started many new programs and activities during her tenure from 2001-2006.  She revitalized a summer reading program that now provides programs to nearly 200 children, and developed year-round adult special programs, staff (reading) picks, reader's advisory services, increased young adult holdings, promoted a monthly film program, and increased volunteer staff.  With Robin's relocation to Sonoma County, Judith Kayser has recently joined the staff as the new branch manager.

During this same period, Henry Bates resigned as Library Director and Erika (Condon) DeMille became Director in March 2000.  Her tenure brought better funding, a stabilization of staffing, and increased computer services to the branch.  Despite more staff changes, with her resignation in March 2005 and the arrival of Melanie Lightbody that fall, the Fort Bragg branch has continued it's record level of service and currently boasts a collection of more than 37,000 items, nearly 7000 card holders checking out well over 1,200  items per month, provides 800 hours per month of Internet service, and a staggering 300 hours per month of scheduled volunteer service.

By 2000, it became evident that the Library needed to be remodeled to accommodate the increased use of public computers, the children's area, the pick up and delivery systems related to  inter-library loans and a lack of space for the books and media requested. A concerted effort by The Friends of the Fort Bragg Library to raise money for the needed changes began. Architect Tom Hise was retained to design the reconfiguration of the library building. In 2006 a temporary library was established in the Veterans Memorial Building and the Friends transferred $450,000 to Mendocino County Building an d Grounds Department to begin the construction. A much improved, efficient and spacious Library reopened in June of 2007.