Even in 1889, San Diego Library a "literary oasis"
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June 6, 2009
Local historian and librarian Richard Crawford detailed the birth of the San Diego Public Library in 1882 in a Union-Tribune article.
In May of 1882, five publicly elected library trustees met to organize the city's first municipal library. The trustees secured five rent-free rooms for the library on the second floor of the Commercial Bank at Fifth Avenue and G Street. They shared space with a dentist and the library opened July 15 as a reading room only. Book borrowing privileges were not considered until the following year.
As Crawford notes, "The collection was supervised by a caretaker: Archibald Hooker, who was also the janitor." Local attorney Augustus Wooster was hired as “librarian” in 1884 and he was replaced in September 1887 by Lulu Younkin, a former teacher and graduate of the University of IowaIn September 1887.
By the end of that decade, "the public library had become a major downtown success story. The two reading rooms were usually crowded, particularly in the evening. Circulation figures were remarkable: 5,855 volumes circulated in October 1889. Annual circulation neared 70,000."
