Hermosa Beach Library in 1955 at the Municipal Pier
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The Ocean View School on Monterey Blvd., where the St. Cross Church now stands, housed the first library — a pay circulating library, sponsored by a committee of club women. Mrs. Mary Montgomery was the librarian.
In 1913 it became a part of the Los Angeles County Public Library system, and functioned thereafter as a public library, occupying a room in the Walker Building on the northwest corner of Pier and Hermosa Avenues.
Later it was moved to the Tower Room of the Pier Auditorium. It was here that the competition between the expanse of blue ocean and the expanse of knowledge and adventure between covers was keen; while on Saturday afternoons and evenings the band concerts made the little room tremble with the voices of the trombones and trumpets, the zing of the cymbals and the march of drums.
As more volumes were added to the shelves, another move was made. This time, downstairs to the north room of the building.
In 1923 Mrs. Fern Rhein was appointed librarian, and in 1925 the library opened its doors to the public on the south side of the Pier, in the former dance pavilion. This was a pleasant room furnished with pompous mission furniture. The south wall, lined with huge windows, looked out upon the emerald water to the green hills of Palos Verdes, and the jeweled hump of Catalina could be seen on clear days. While the opposite windowed wall previewed the fortunate and less fortunate fishermen as they made their way to and from the Pier, along with the vast number of bathers and visitors to our city.
At this time the Hermosa Library was perhaps the only library that could boast of a roof tiled with living pigeons. Sara Henderson Hay, in her poem, PIGEON ENGLISH, describes it perfectly.
The plump, the pompous bosomed bird
Perches upon the steepled roof
He wears a look of mild reproof,
And speaks in accents soft and blurred.
One pessimistic theme is his:
"And the difficulty is...and the difficulty is."
His neighbor sits and cocks an eye
Upon the crowded street below.
He sees the people come and go,
He feels Time's feathered wing brush by,
Nods his head sagely and, says be,
"Indubitably.....indubitably."
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And for many long years the "difficulty" was "indubitably" difficult for all of us.
On January 13, 1937, about seven o'clock in the evening, the librarian on duty, Miss Kathryn Kerber, noticed a heavy pall of smoke in the high ceiling. Investigating a storage room in the rear of the building, she found it filled with smoke.
The only patron in the library at the moment was a twelve-year-old, browsing in the stacks. He ran to the fire station about two blocks away and gave the alarm. (We had no telephone in the branch in those days.) Within thirty minutes the fire was extinguished without any damage to our collection of books or furnishings. We were and are proud of our fire department.
While the building was being repaired, and a restroom added, a minimum of books were moved once more to a small room on the north side of the Pier, where two staff members kept the residents content with mysteries and westerns, a set of encyclopedias and the almanac, and a potpourri collection for children.
In 1951, Mrs. Dorothy Olney was appointed librarian in charge of the Hermosa Beach branch, and a few years later the building was redecorated. This time with a light cream ceiling, well lighted, and soft yellow and grey-green walls. The dark brown furniture and book stacks took on a new lease, and the library-conscious people in the community, along with the staff, were proud of their library.
Sometime later a new neighbor moved next door. We no longer had the silver sand and gaily colored bathers to glance upon when a moment of leisure permitted, but we had a huge tank in which seals and porpoises cavorted and chortled for prizes of glistening herring!
In September, 1957, once more the Hermosa Library packed its multicolored volumes and moved again. This time to the former Post Office building at 1106 Hermosa Avenue.
On August 10, 1962, after forty-five years of growing with the community, the doors of a handsome building at 550 Pier Avenue opened to the public:
THE HERMOSA BEACH LIBRARY
CITY OF HERMOSA BEACH
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
History of Hermosa Beach Branch from 1927/28
This early history of Hermosa Beach has been compiled by Mrs. Fern Rhein, Librarian for the Hermosa Beach Branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library. It is the writerís wish that it be understood that facts and statements herein recorded cannot be guaranteed to be absolutely correct in a historical sense; she has labored conscientiously to make this record as nearly correct as it has been possible with the limited sources available.
The first library was a pay circulating library sponsored by a committee of club women and opened first in the Ocean View School building with Mrs. Mary Montgomery as custodian. In 1913, it was taken into the Los Angeles County Public Library service and became a public library occupying a room in the Walker building on Hermosa Avenue. Later, it was moved to the tower room of the Pier auditorium and again moved down stairs into the north room of the building with Mrs. Montgomery still in charge as itís librarian. In 1925, it was moved into the present location in the south room of the auditorium where it is still functioning as a branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library.
Mrs. John Walker-Broad and her daughters, Jane and Margaret, relatives of the late Henry E. Huntington of Pasadena, spent nearly a year as residents of this city. Miss Margaret Borad later married Collis Huntington Holladay, a nephew of Henry E. Huntington. Recently a son was born to this socially prominent couple and becomes another heir to the Huntington millions. Miss Margaret was a patron of the local branch of the Los Angeles County Public Library situated on the pier, and on one occasion, made inquiries at the desk as to the requirements for the assistant librarianís work, intending, she explained to use such experience, if acquired, in the American Department of the Bibliotheque National while in Paris the coming year.
Hermosa Beach branch was opened in a storeroom in June 1913 and on completion of the municipal pier it was moved there. In the spring of 1927 it was moved to larger quarters on the same pier, where visitors may enjoy the sea breezes and fine view. This branch now has a stock of 4,500 volumes and received and average of 1,200 books per year. The total number of books issued has been 292,178. Since 1923 the use has grown from 22,446 to 50,859 for the last year. Thirty-five magazines are provided. Hours open, every week day from 1-9. There are 2,276 registered borrowers and many transients get books by making a deposit.
Books and Notes Los Angeles County Free Library, vol. 2, 1927-28, p. 20.
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