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  • Home
    • Steering Committee
    • Heritage Herald Newsletter >
      • Archived Newsletters
  • This Place Matters
    • Save The Depot >
      • Depot Historic Timeline
      • In the News
      • How You Can Help!
    • Boyd Gatehouse
    • TPM Archives >
      • Fire Station 51
  • Membership
  • Contact
  • By Laws
  • Calendar
  • Links to Preservation Organizations
  • Historic Preservation Events
  • SRH ARCHIVES

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San Rafael library hits 130 years of service, looks to expand
Story in the Marin IJ, June 3rd
Picture
Most of us assume that our library started out in its present Classical Revival Carnegie-endowed building.  But library roots go back to 1887, when the Women’s Christian Temperance Union started a coffee and reading room with a free library in downtown San Rafael.  By 1890, this library had been turned over to the City of San Rafael.  In 1904, the Good Government Club and a local judge who was a personal friend of Andrew Carnegie asked Carnegie for funds for a proper library building.  A grant of $25,000 brought the structure into existence in 1909.  It was designed by the same architects who designed San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.

The Carnegie endowment gave San Rafael a gracious, lovely, building of civic importance that our citizens have viewed with great pride for 108 years!

Civic Center Tours

One-hour docent-led tours of the Civic Center are offered every Wednesday at 10:30 am