Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
TPL-1100
Date(s)
- 1911 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
ca. 1911. Interior of the original South Tacoma Branch of the Tacoma Public Library (TPL.) This was the first branch library in a building of its own in the TPL system. The idea for the branch evolved from the Women's Christian Temperance Union's (WCTU) reading room. The reading room was started in 1905 in the Grieb building on South Union Ave. (now South Tacoma Way) to lure young men away from the rowdy saloons of South Tacoma. Miss Lillian L. Beattie (later Mrs. James Smyth) served as the first librarian from 1905-1907. She originally worked for no wages, later to be paid $10 a month by the WCTU and $15 a month by TPL. Finally the Tacoma Public City Librarian was authorized to spend up to $30 a month to maintain a library branch and the library moved to two more locations until, in 1909, $5000 was earmarked for the construction of a branch library building. The South Tacoma branch was dedicated on May 3, 1911. It was designed by George Gove and built at a cost of $3,620. (TNT 11/29/1959, pg. 4)
Tacoma Public Library, South Tacoma Branch (Tacoma); Public libraries--Tacoma--1910-1920;