With the re-opening of the Fremont branch of the Seattle Public Library (SPL) in April of 2005, we regained a crucial link of our community. After a $749,267 renovation, provided under the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond measure, the SPL re-opened yet another of their branches, and gave us back the use of a limb.

From Humble Beginnings

In 1894, three years after our annexation to Seattle, Erastus Witter, a farmer, organized a library here. The main library, downtown, lay too far distant and for Fremonsters, most of who labored hard for a living, finances also prohibited the trek. Witter gathered pledges of $5 a year from 10 prominent Fremont citizens to get books and a location.

He kept the books at his home until 1901 when he opened the Free Reading Room, upstairs from the Fremont Drug Company, at 3401 Fremont Avenue North. Drug store owner, Sidney S. Elder, served as president of the Fremont Reading Room Association - a job he took seriously.

Elder took a seat on the Seattle Public Library Board and eventually convinced them to open a branch in Fremont. Through Witter's and Elder's efforts, and probably a whole lot of Fremonsters alongside them, 200 volumes arrived from SPL on September 29, 1902. The farmer turned librarian and with the rental of apartments at 3424½ Fremont Avenue, the branch officially opened February 2, 1903. This became the first branch library in Seattle. (The Outlook, April 26, 1972)

In 1912 the branch moved to a storefront at 3425 Fremont Avenue North. It had grown quickly into one of the busiest and best supported branches in the city with circulation increasing at the rate of 500 books each year.

From The Ground Up

Other branches gained permanent buildings long before Fremonsters could fund one. The Fremont Commercial Club requested formally that SPL provide us with a building. The City of Seattle received grants from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie for a new main library and branches but these grants only covered construction costs. So the Fremont Business Men's Club initiated fundraising efforts in 1916 to buy land, furnishings and books. In 1917, Carnegie offered $35,000 for the building.

Through rummage sales, dances, card parties, a street fair, variety shows and general arm twisting, Fremonsters scraped together $7,000 by 1920. With a generous show of support in $3,000 from the City of Seattle, we purchased the site at 731 North 35th Street.

The City saved money by hiring a city architect, Daniel R. Huntington, to design the building. He chose the Mission Revival style for the building; he called it 'Italian Farmhouse'. Listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and with the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, the building's unique features of stucco covered terra-cotta brick, distinctive red tile roof, arched windows with tile trim, and a high gabled ceiling supported by dark wood trusses, stand out in Seattle.

Settling In

Opened on July 27th, 1921, the library quickly became an axis of community activity from the time of the Great Depression, when patronage surged while services fell off, to the 40's when the Health Department ran a baby clinic downstairs. After World War II the library's meeting room served as a home for the SPL Blind Department. Storage of works in Braille and books-on-phonograph record lasted here until 1973.

The 1980's saw a budget crisis within the Seattle Public Library system. Circulation at Fremont had dropped so dramatically over the intervening decades that they designated our location a "station" and cut back our open hours. The librarians explained that SPL based such decisions on the number of books checked out. Fremont activists spread the word and started an underground campaign that continued for several years, encouraging Fremonsters to check out dozens of books - even if just to walk outside and slide them right back through the book drop.

The Fremont Library closed for eight months, starting in December 1987, for a remodel under the 1984 1-2-3 bond issue for Carnegie branch libraries. It helped us see what might happen if the branch closed down permanently. The community rallied. The Fremont Chamber held book sales and fundraisers to buy the children's librarian materials, build a teachers' resource shelf and support other staff suggestions.

The Chamber Board Meeting minutes from January 30, 1991 says "the Library reports the $300 sent to them by FCC was used to purchase a book cart and shades for the basement meeting room. A party on 4/20 at the Library will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Libraries."

We Have Arrived

A picture from the Seattle Public Library files shows the original building in 1921 and except for landscaping, the photo could have been taken this week - even after the most recent extensive renovations. As for the rest of the neighborhood, the same can not be said. Everything appears to have changed, sometimes dramatically, in the intervening years. Except, I'd argue, that if you look a little closer you see Witter's legacy carried on, both in the library and, I humbly submit, in the self-starting, activist tendencies of the people who now live here.

The author acknowledges and thanks History Link, David Wilma and the Seattle Public Library for providing information used within this column.

May 2005