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Running head: HISTORY OF THE MAIN LIBRARY OF SAN FRANCISCO

History of the Main Library of San Francisco

Nicolette Hall

San Jose State University

HISTORY OF THE MAIN LIBRARY OF SAN FRANCISCO 2

History of the Main Library of San Francisco

The history of the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library is a rather

tumultuous one, full of budgetary issues, frequent (for a library) changes in location, and one

incident of near complete destruction. A core idea of its foundation was that a public library

institution was second in importance only to public education institutions, and that those two

were directly linked in their roles of helping to educate members of society. The Board of

Trustees of the Free Public Library were wholly invested in the egalitarian belief that education

was for all people and providing a means of access for all is to the greater benefit of society as a

whole. This paper will examine the origin and early developmental period of the Main Branch

of the San Francisco Public Library, originally known as the Free Public Library.

Origin and Founding

Background

The Free Public Library was founded in 18781 during the downturn of a boom and bust

cycle. The 1800s were a time of considerable boom and bust for San Francisco, with the gold

rush kicking off and peaking mid-century, there was a large confluence of wealthy industrialists

as well as intermittently unemployed and underemployed workers. The population swelled

seemingly overnight, starting in 1848 when the population more than doubled in an eight month

period growing from 375 to 812 (though this was only an account of the white population) and

by 1850 reaching 21,000 (“San Francisco”, 1848; “U.S. Census Commissioner’s Report”, 1851).

This growth lead to greater calls for public resources that were severely lacking in early San

Francisco.

1 The library was founded in 1878, but would not open its doors to the public until 1879 (Mood, 1946).


While many of the new arrivals to San Francisco were drawn by the hope of striking it

rich in the mines, the city had also become a destination for literary minds of the time. A large

factor in the city’s magnetism was the abundance of newspapers in San Francisco. According to

Wiley there were “twelve newspapers in the city and many more magazines, all of which

employed some 1,000 people” by the mid-1850s (Wiley, 1996, p.91). These trades would attract

young editors and writers to document the quickly changing area. Some of the more notable

writers of the period include Bret Harte, Ina Donna Coolbrith (who would later become the

librarian for Oakland), Charles Warren Stoddard, Ambrose Bierce, Joaquin Miller, and even

Mark Twain (Tarnoff, 2014; Wiley, 1996). However, with these growing financial and literary

riches, the city did not yet have a public library institution.

Though San Francisco lacked a publically funded institution at this time, private libraries

thrived in the city. Robert B. Woodward opened the first in 1852. This library was located in a

men’s temperance hotel owned by Woodward, the What Cheer House, and was open to hotel

guests and the public (Wiley, 1996). The Mercantile Association founded the first subscription

library in 1853, though the group sought to make membership affordable to as many San

Franciscans as possible (Wiley, 1996). Shortly after this, in 1854, The Mechanics’ Institute

library was created. The Mechanics’ Institute was also conceived as a private library, funded by

stockholders and subscribers, and sought to address the growing developmental needs of the city

and its populace, both in terms of the infrastructure needs of the city and the skill and

employment needs of the exponentially growing population (Edwards, T., n.d.). From there,

libraries began to spring up throughout the city with some of them being organized by groups

such as the Society of California Pioneers, the Young Men’s Christian Association, La Ligue

Nationale Française, the International Order of Odd Fellows, and a law library that would


eventually be reorganized into the San Francisco Law Library (Wiley, 1996). At this time there

were also significant personal libraries within the city, including those of Leland Stanford

(consisting of 3,000 volumes), that of the above mentioned Woodward, and that of Hubert Howe

Bancroft, which would eventually consist of 20,000 volumes (Wiley, 1996). Bancroft’s personal

collection would go on to be a founding basis for the Bancroft Library at the University of

California, Berkeley.

Founding

The lack of a free public library for use by all citizens, though not an uncommon

occurrence for developing cities at this time, was seen as one of the great faults of the city. The

first steps to remedy this problem took place on August 3, 1877. Andrew S. Hallidie, the

inventor of the cable car and a former president of the Mechanics’ Institute, organized a meeting

at Dashaway Hall to advocate the funding of a free public library for San Francisco (“Free Public

Library - Important Meeting”, 1877). There were many prominent individuals present at this

meeting including State Senator George H. Rogers2 and Judge E. D. Sawyer, who in speaking of

the task at hand stated, “this city needed no public institution so badly as a large, free library,

furnishing moral, religious and intellectual food for the masses” (“Free Public Library -

Important Meeting”, 1877). Prior to this meeting, Rogers had letters sent to notable free libraries

across the United States and in Europe inquiring about the methods used to develop and manage

their institutions. Roughly two hundred replies were received and the findings from these would

be key to the meetings discussions. After examining the evidence Henry George noted that:

2 There is some apparent confusion in documents as to whether it is George H. Rogers or George E. Rogers. While some documents and articles note George E. Rogers, according to the Governmental Roster: State and County Governments of California, Executive, Judicial and Legislative Departments George H. Rogers served as the State Senator for San Francisco during the twenty-first (December 6, 1875 - April 3, 1876) and twenty-second (December 3, 1877 - April 1, 1878) legislative sessions (Hendricks, 1889).


First - The avidity with which people take up the idea of a free public Library, and the

willingness with which they vote money to its support.

Second, That a public library cannot be maintained by dependence on subscriptions and

private donations.

Third, A marked improvement in taste for reading. Wherever a free public library has

been established, the demand for books at private sale grows.

Fourth, The average cost per volume of a well-selected library is $1.25.

Fifth, People are stimulated to add to a large free library by donations from private

libraries. (“Free Public Library - Important Meeting”, 1877, p.1)

At this meeting the groundwork was laid to devise a method to begin securing funding for the

library, in the form of a Senate Bill to be put forth by Senator Rogers that would eventually be

known as the Rogers Free Library Act (Senate Bill Number 1).

In 1878, California’s thirteenth governor, William Irwin, signed the Rogers Free Library

Act which was intended to help establish and maintain free public libraries and reading rooms

(Wiley, 1996). The Rogers Free Library Act was modeled after public library funding methods

that had been successful in English cities such as Birmingham, Sheffield, and Manchester where

a small tax was levied at a rate of half a penny on the pound (“Free Public Library - Important

Meeting”, 1877). The Rogers Free Library Act would authorize incorporated cities and towns to

levy a tax “not exceeding one mill (one-tenth of one cent) on the dollar” (Wiley, 1996, p.98). It

also required the establishment of a board of trustees to prevent city politics from interfering

with the library. This would be a near constant battle for the Board of Trustees of the Free

Public Library.


The first board consisted of many of the individuals that were present at the initial

planning meeting on August 3, 1877. The first trustees of the board included George H. Rogers,

John S. Hager, Irving M. Scott, Robert J. Tobin, Judge E.D. Sawyer, Andrew J. Moulder, John

H. Wise, Louis Sloss, Andrew S. Hallidie, C.C. Terrill, and Henry George (“The Free Public

Library”, 1878). Following this, the first San Francisco Public Library would eventually be

established at what was then known as Pacific Hall. That same year the first librarian, Albert

Hart, was hired. He would also serve as Secretary.

Early Patrons

The San Francisco Free Library was meant to be a library for all people. During the

August 3rd, 1877 meeting that initiated the founding of the library, Henry George is noted to

have stated “that the only successful theory of a Free Library is its establishment and support

from a common fund, so that every man, woman and child in San Francisco can say, ‘This is my

library’” (“Free Public Library - Important Meeting”, 1877). George also stated that it “would

be open to all classes, but principally frequented by the poor; that the man in corduroy is treated

with the same courtesy as the rich man in broadcloth; that the conduct of all is decorous; and that

the charm of the place is its perfect freedom” (Wiley, 1996, p.98). This vision was inclusive of

men, women, and children alike. This is notable as even at the grand opening celebration the

library provided a seating section designated for women and had opened a Juvenile Department

by 1895. The first Borrowers’ Handbook (1901) states that “all residents of the City and County

of San Francisco, twelve years of age and over, and all nonresident taxpayers of said city and

county, may become borrowers” (San Francisco Public Library, 1901, p.1). The real hope

amongst the founding board members was to create an institution open to the public that would


be a gateway to elevating oneself through education and opportunity, and through this self-

improvement the city itself would benefit.

The Daily Alta California reported a large turnout of men and women to the grand

opening on June 7, 1879 (“The Free Library - Formal Opening”, 1879). Attendance remained

high and the reading room was often overloaded with visitors. Due to the proximity of the

library to San Francisco’s entertainment district - where there was an abundance of theaters,

saloons, and varying other forms of entertainment - there was a constant flow of traffic to the

library. By 1885, the library was seeing a daily attendance of over 1,000 patrons, and the

number of library cards that had been issued was between 26,000 and 27,000 (Perkins, 1885).

Budgetary Issues

The most persistent problem that plagued the library from its very beginnings was that of

funding. Although the Rogers Free Library Act had established a means for the city to allocate

funds for the library through a small tax levy, the Board of Supervisors consistently pushed back

and withheld the funds as if they were a ransom. At the May 13, 1878 San Francisco Board of

Supervisors meeting, members of the Board of Trustee of the library presented a request for

$75,000 from the city for the initial funding of the library. This amount was intended to cover

modifications to the building to ready it for use, provide a salary for the librarians and staff, and

build the collection beyond donated materials (“The Free Public Library - A Request”, 1878).

The Trustees also requested at the meeting to begin to levy the library fund tax set forth by the

Rogers Free Library Act. They requested three to ten mill of a dollar, an amount that was

actually less than one-third of the tax allowed through the law (“The Free Public Library - A

Request”, 1878). The city was generally against increasing the amount of taxes on its citizens,


but the Board of Trustees argued that it was to the city’s financial benefit to fund the institution.

The letter to the Board of Supervisors presented during their meeting stated:

To increase popular intelligence is to increase wealth and to secure order - it is to

augment the resources of the community and to diminish the drain upon them. It is

economy, not extravagance; not an outlay which will be lost, but one which will return

manifold. A Free Public Library is, in fact, but a supplement and extension which the

most thoughtful educators unite in considering of even greater importance than high

schools and universities (“The Free Public Library - A Request”, 1878, p.2).

Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors were not convinced that the full amount of the requested

funds were necessary and thought that there would be sufficient donations of books and other

materials from the wealthiest members of San Francisco. In the end, at a vote of nine to three the

Board decided to appoint only $24,000 for the library fund (Wiley, 1996). This battle was only

the beginning of the struggle for the Board of Trustees to attain funds from the Board of

Supervisors and the city for the library.

Though the funds were now appointed, collecting the money was another issue

altogether. The city had not established the Library Fund and Mayor Andrew Bryant refused to

allow funds to be appropriated from the city’s General Fund. Once the Library Fund was

created, Mayor Bryant continued his fight to prevent its funding by vetoing efforts by the Board

of Supervisors to transfer the funds (Wiley, 1996). During this time, the Librarian, Albert Hart,

and his assistant worked without pay and when Hart applied to the city for his salary his request

was refused. Although there were still no funds to be heard of, the Board of Trustees decided to

open the library anyway using credit and borrowed funds as well as the donated materials (“The

Free Library - Formal Opening”, 1879).


The Board of Trustees of the library continued to work with City Hall to seek the release

of the library’s funding. The issues involved went to the very heart of what the Rogers Free

Library Act had sought to prevent. Requiring the establishment of a board of trustees to prevent

a free public library from becoming entangled in city politics was a source of constant agitation

for a Board of Supervisors that wanted control of the library for political appointment purposes

(Wiley, 1996). Continuing to withhold funding for the library was the easiest method to attempt

to control its development. Eventually the matter was taken to the courts and made its way to the

California Supreme Court, where the Court’s decided in favor of the Board of Trustees. The

Free Public Library would receive $48,000 in funds for the 1880 - 1881 fiscal year (Wiley,

1996). It wasn’t until the civic reform efforts of the late 1890s and early 1900s that the Library

would see a reprieve from its funding struggles. It is during this period of city development that

Mayor James Duval Phelan would secure a grant from the Carnegie Foundation for $750,000.

The grant and its use will be discussed further in the following sections.

Staff and Operation

Early Librarians - Their Histories and Tenure

The early years of the Free Public Library were trying and uneasy for its first librarians.

Not only was the funding constantly in question due to changes in local politics and power

struggles for control of the library, but the lack of a permanent location left the library’s home

shifting every few years. The working conditions were not at the time the most conducive to

success. This would lead to a quick succession of changes in librarians within the library’s first

two years.

The first librarian, Albert Hart, was hired without pay and was under continuous stress

that preceded the official opening of the library, largely due to the continued lack of funding


from the city. He would resign before the end of the library’s first year. Hart came to the Free

Public Library from an academic and public service background. Born in Barbados in 1830, by

1838 his family had resided in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and would return to the West Indies.

Upon his father’s death in 1838, Hart and his mother returned to New Orleans where he would

spend his formative years. Hart ventured to California like so many others during the gold

rush, arriving in San Francisco in 1850 (“Albert Hart Passes Away”, 1896). He engaged in

mining in Placer County, but was also taking on work as a teacher and was at the time one of

the first teachers in California (“Albert Hart Passes Away”, 1896). From the years 1854 to

1857 Hart held several teaching jobs in locations such as Yankee Jim’s, Iowa Hill, and Dutch

Flat (“Albert Hart Passes Away”, 1896). Though he had several years of teaching experience,

it does not appear that Hart had any formal training in library sciences, but was well regarded

in the field. Hart would go on to Sacramento in 1861 where he worked in the State Library for

several years, serving as Deputy State Librarian for one term (“Albert Hart The Man”, 1894).

In 1875 and 1876 he would serve on the School Board in Sacramento. He later went on to be

the first librarian for the San Francisco Law Library, a position he would leave to become US

Pension Agent in San Francisco.

In March of 1879, the Board of Trustees hired Hart to serve as the first librarian for the

Free Public Library (“The Proposed Free Library”, 1879). The salary for his position was set

to not exceed $200 per month per the Board of Supervisors (“Board of Supervisors”, 1879). As

previously noted, this would be a trying position for Hart with the compounded stresses of

having to start and run a library that did not have any funding and the city refusing to pay his

salary. Upon leaving his position at the Free Library, Hart would return to Sacramento and

serve two terms as the Superintendent of Schools for the city of Sacramento from 1890 through


1894 (Reed, 1923). On November 1, 1894, Hart was appointed Secretary of State by Governor

Markham (“Secretary of State”, 1894).

The second librarian was appointed on December 10, 1879, a man named Charles H.

Robinson, though his tenure would be shorter than that of Hart. At the time of his hiring, the

salary for the librarian was reduced to $150 a month (“Around the City”, 1879). Citing

overwork, Robinson would resign his position after seven months. His resignation was

officially accepted by the Board of Trustees during their meeting on June 1, 1880 (“The

Trustees of the Free”, 1880). Little is known about Robinson’s background at this time.

Articles and information addressing his appointment to the position of head librarian do not

speak to his prior experience and pedigree as is seen with other early librarians such as Hart

and Perkins. In his absence the management and care of the library was place under Lauren E.

Crane (“The Trustees of the Free”, 1880).

After sorting out, setting, and meeting an appropriate budget for the library for the

1880-81 fiscal year, the Board of Trustees was able to seek out the next head librarian. If the

Board of Trustees was seeking to model the Free Public Library after other great American

public libraries that came before it, such as the Boston Public Library, what better choice than

an individual from one of those great libraries? It was with this third appointee to the head

librarian position, Frederic Beecher Perkins, that the Free Public Library found an individual

that had the background and experience necessary to guide and model it after the great

American libraries that it aspired to. It is also with the hiring of Perkins in 1880 that the

written record of the Free Public Library began (Loughead, 1898b).

Perkins was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 27, 1828 to Mary Foote

Beecher and Thomas Clap Perkins. He was a member of the Beecher family, of which many


members played significant roles in American history in regards to education, abolition, and

the women’s suffrage movement throughout the 19th century. His grandfather, Lyman

Beecher, was a Presbyterian minister and founder of the American Temperance Society. His

aunt Harriet Beecher Stowe was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. His uncle Henry Ward

Beecher was a famous abolitionist and authored the widely-spread document “Shall We

Compromise” in opposition to the Compromise of 1850. Perkins would follow in these

footsteps as a writer, editor, and also librarian.

Perkins’s educational pursuits took him to Yale in 1848. He left the college for a few

years, but returned and received a degree in 1860 (Yale University, 1899). In between these

years Perkins studied law in his father’s office and taught for a brief period in Greenwich,

Connecticut. He would gain editorial experience in Hartford working with Hon. Henry

Barnard before venturing to New York City in 1854 where he would find writing and editing

work at literary institutions such as the New York Tribune and Harper’s Magazine among

others (Yale University, 1899). After marrying Mary Fitch Wescott in 1857, Perkins returned

to Hartford and took on the position of Librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society, a

position he held until 1861. During this same period he joined Hon. Barnard as an editor of the

Journal of Education (Yale, 1899).

From 1874 to 1879 Perkins worked at the Boston Public Library. He would hold

several positions during his time there starting out as the Office Secretary and eventually

spending time as Register and Assistant Librarian, and also as Special Cataloguer (Yale, 1899).

It is also during this period while at the Boston Public Library that Perkins would become quite

active in writing about libraries and librarianship. He would contribute five articles to the 1876

report on libraries, a document that would be a major influence on the field of library science,


which Francis Miksa referred to as the “magnum opus of American Library economy” (Miksa,

1973, p.30). It is also during this time that Perkins joined Library Journal as a writer and

editor. He became active with the American Library Association (ALA), becoming an officer

and founding member of the ALA’s Cooperation Committee. He attended ALA conventions

and also frequently participated in discussions regarding libraries and librarianship. Perkins

also served as editor of the ALA’s Catalog (Murray, 2009). Upon resigning his position at the

Boston Public Library, Perkins went on to work with Melvil Dewey at the Reader’s and

Writer’s Economy Company. It is also during this period that Perkins wrote several books

including a novel titled Scrope, or the Lost Library (1874) and Charles Dickens: his Life and

Works (1877).

Perkins was appointed to the Head Librarian position at San Francisco’s Free Public

Library in July of 1880. With the years of experience Perkins had acquired working as a

librarian and also as a leading thinker in the field of librarianship, he was an ideal candidate for

the position. His leadership of the Free Public Library would lead to significant developments

in the library’s facilities and services. These included expansion of materials available for

circulation, the creation of a Juvenile Department, creation of a catalog for the library, and

increasing the size and scope of the library’s collection.

Unfortunately, Perkins’s countenance was not exactly a fit for the library and its

patrons. There were several controversies during his time with the Free Public Library that

would lead to his resignation. The combination of Perkins’ nature as a stickler for the rules of

the library and his short temper were often the origin of these incidents. There were several

instances of patron confrontations that were brought to the Board of Trustees. One of these

instances involved a refusal of patron H. Walker’s application to access the medical text


Treatise on Diseases of the Liver. Perkins’s reasoning for the refusal was based on the rules of

the library, which stated that he was “allowed to loan medical works only to medical men and

students duly certified, except ‘in his discretion’” (“The Free Library - A Meeting”, 1885). In

his defense, Perkins informed the board that he had not used his discretion before as he

“disliked to discriminate as between citizens” (“The Free Library - A Meeting”, 1885). There

was no fallout for Perkins in this situation and the patron was allowed access to the book.

Another instance brought before the board was an objection from the San Francisco Chronicle

regarding materials removal from the library. The items in question had been mutilated -

“about fifty volumes and five papers had been mutilated by being cut in different places with a

knife” - and were removed to prevent further damage (“Librarian Perkins”, 1885). In this

instance it was decided that the materials would be returned to the gallery except for the most

valuable ones that would be difficult to replace. In both instances the board cleared Perkins of

wrongdoing.

The most damning issue though would bring Perkins to court. Quarters in the Pacific

Hall location of the library were still cramped and Perkins saw some of the patrons as too

unruly. The incident in question involved the son of Captain Charles P. Egan, a United States

Army officer, on May 21, 1887. The warrant sworn out by Egan claimed that Perkins had

severely thrashed Egan’s nine year old son, knocking him against the railing and throwing him

down (“Work of the Month”, 1887). This led to Perkins being arrested and a court appearance

several days later on the 27th. At the trial, Perkins admitted to shaking the child for the

disruption he had caused, but admitted that due to the troublesome nature of many of the

youths in the library his patience had reached its limits (“Librarian Perkins Fined”, 1887). The

Judge saw this as no excuse and found Perkins guilty, sentencing him to a fine of $20. There


would be a reversal on this verdict though in August of that same year that left an opening for a

new trial and Perkins was released (“Voided by a Rubber Stamp”, 1887). While Perkins would

eventually again be cleared of any wrongdoing by the Board of Trustees, the damage was

already done. By August 10, 1887 the board had asked Perkins to tender his resignation and he

obliged (“Perkins Removed”, 1887). In announcing his resignation on behalf of the Board,

member John H. Wise stated:

Much complaint had been made about Perkins from time to time, on account of his

gruff ways. He had a peculiar style of brusqueness, which was very offensive to the

patrons of the library, particularly to the ladies… As a librarian, however, he never had

a superior. (“Perkins Removed”, 1887, p.1)

While Perkins’ strict attention to the rules had produced constant conflict for him with library

patrons and the Board of Trustees, there was no denying that his skills and knowledge of

librarianship were of the highest degree.

Other Library Staff and Their Duties

In the earliest days of the library very little is known concerning the particulars of the

staff. In an article on the proposal for the library, the working staff is proposed to consist of

four individuals - a librarian, an assistant librarian, a janitor, and a “boy” (“The Proposed Free

Library”, 1879). The proposed initial monthly salaries for all of these positions totaled $390 -

$200 for the librarian, $100 for the assistant librarian, $60 for the janitor, and $30 for the boy

(“The Free Public Library - Conference”, 1879). In the early years, during the time of closed

stacks, tasks would consist of taking book requests from patrons, locating and delivering

materials, cataloging books, monitoring activity in the library, and attempting to prevent

mishandling, misuse, and theft of materials.


In just two years since opening to the public, the staff for the library had greatly

expanded. The staff that year consisted of Frederic Beecher Perkins, Librarian; A. J. Rudolph,

First Assistant; Julia Citron, E. M. Hay, Eugenie Melville, Frank J. Stone, and M. T. Tyler as

assistants; Emil Kuhl, Ben Peckerman, Dixon H. Lee, James Travers, and John H. Wood as

messengers; and Fred Blessing and Juan Gomez as janitors (Board of Trustees, 1882). For the

1881-82 fiscal year, the Board of Trustees reported that the total funds spent on salaries for the

year were $11,727.36 (Moulder, 1882). By this time the library had opened circulation of

materials and the duties of the staff extended to issuing borrower cards, the creation of a new

catalogue for use by patrons, taking requests for books to be purchased, and retrieving and

checking out materials to patrons.

First Board of Trustees

The original Board of Trustees of the Free Public Library, as noted above, was made up

of individuals present at the original meeting organized by Andrew S. Hallidie to discuss the

founding of a free public library for San Francisco. The first board had eleven members that

included George H. Rogers, John S. Hager, Irving M. Scott, Robert J. Tobin, Judge E.D.

Sawyer, Andrew J. Moulder, John H. Wise, Louis Sloss, Andrew S. Hallidie, C.C. Terrill, and

Henry George. Many of them were prominent members of the San Francisco community,

active in government, medicine, and industry, both public and private.

The Board of Trustees held regular monthly meetings at the library. At the meetings

the board would discuss matters having to do with the operations of the library on both the

microscopic and macroscopic levels. During each meeting, the librarian read a report that

detailed information regarding the number of visitors to the library the previous month, the

number of books used in the library as well as the number of books in circulation, the number


of borrower cards issued, numbers related to new materials added to the library’s collection,

and more specifically the number of fiction books provided to readers per month. Financial

reports provided by the Secretary were reviewed monthly to assess budgeting needs. The

board would also review and approve or reject purchasing requests for materials. It was also

their duty to draw up and present to the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco any requests for

funds for materials or improvements to the library itself. The board would also serve as a panel

for confrontations that arose out of the library, for instances such as those that plagued Head

Librarian Perkins throughout his tenure.

Library Services

While the initial services provided by the library were limited, as funds and available

space increased, the services offered increased as well. In initial planning, the Board of Trustees

had a rather grand design on the types of services the library should offer beyond just the

libraries and reading rooms. They envisioned an institution that had a “lecture-room, a public

hall, an art gallery, a gymnasium, a museum, and an apartment for the exhibition of mechanical

models and new inventions” (“The Free Public Library - A Request”, 1878).

Although the President of the Board of Trustees, George H. Rogers, was the framer of the

Rodgers Free Library Act which established in California a means of funding reading rooms and

free public libraries through taxation, the Board of Supervisors had only provided $24,000, one

tenth of the funding they were empowered to give by the law (“The San Francisco Free Library”,

1879). This left the Board to make the decision to utilize half of the funds to maintain a reading

room and non-circulating collection of nearly 6,000 volumes, while the rest of the funds would

continue to grow so that more materials and a circulating collection could be established (“The

San Francisco Free Library”, 1879). This collection would remain a non-circulating collection


for several years due largely to its small size, but also there were fears among the Board of

Trustees and the librarian of the collection walking out the door with the first patrons (Wiley,

1996). Looking at the catalogues from the libraries earliest years, the collection included

reference and novels (though some of these would be removed by Head Librarian Frederic

Beecher Perkins for being “dirty books”), travel books, nonfiction, and books covering various

genres - an impressive breadth and scope for such meager funding (San Francisco Public

Library, 1880; Wiley, 1996, p.104).

However, lack of funding did not limit the library’s service hours. On most days of the

week the library was open twelve hours a day, from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. during the week and from

1 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Sundays (“The Free Library - Formal Opening”, 1879). While they may

not have been able to take materials out of the library at the moment, the hours of access showed

a clear desire to make the materials as available as possible within the given constraints.

As noted above, the initial library services were limited to browsing materials within the

library itself as the collection was non-circulating in the beginning. Reading tables and areas

were provided for patrons to use, but access to the stacks was first limited to library staff only.

On July 19, 1880 the Free Public Library made the transition to a circulating library (“Improving

the Free Library”, 1880). As the collection grew, small selections of books were available in

open stacks for browsing. In July of 1898 the library had opened up the stacks so that patrons

could directly access the books without the intermediary of a book messenger (“The Public

Library - To Be Opened”, 1898). As the library gained space in its various location changes,

spaces were created to accommodate new services for patrons. By the late 1890s the main

library housed a reference room, a men’s reading room, a juvenile department, a newspaper

department, and a periodical room.


Building and Facilities

The original location of the Free Public Library was on the second floor of the building at

414 Bush Street, between Kearny Street and Dupont Street (now known as Grant Street). The

second floor was known as Pacific Hall and the California Theatre was located on the first floor,

this would be a cause of concern for the entire period of the Pacific Hall lease. The location was

not ideal, but the Board of Trustees was severely limited in options and the Board of Supervisors

proved little assistance. The Pacific Hall measured 50 x 135 feet, enough space for a reading

room and library without needing too many modifications (“The Proposed Free Library”, 1879).

The initial lease on the hall was for one year at $250 per month (“The Free Library -

Conference”, 1879). Before opening, the stage in the hall was removed and an office for the

Trustees and Librarian was situated in the southeast corner (“The Free Library - Formal

Opening”, 1879). The northern wall of the room was framed up with bookshelves and a counter

was installed parallel to the shelves as a barrier between patrons and the shelves. The gallery

housed the newspaper and periodicals and the hall was then fitted with reading tables for the

comfort of visitors as the collection at this point was non-circulating.

There were misgivings from very early on about the Pacific Hall. Perkins objected to

what he called ‘the professional immorality of notorious localities’ near the library as it was so

close to the entertainment district of the city (Perkins, 1885, p.229). There were also underlying

fears of fire due to the library’s proximity to the theatre below it, as it was not uncommon during

this period for a theatre to burn. For this reason a $50,000 insurance policy was kept on the

library (Wiley, 1996). Little did they know how justified those fears were, but at a completely

different location. The conditions became even less than ideal as the popularity of the library

grew. The layout of the library did not provide the librarians with a segregated area for the


processing and cataloging of books. With the increasing number of visitors, quarters became

even more cramped with staff now having to work on the same tables as patrons, at times

stacking books on the floors for space (Wiley, 1996).

The Free Public Library went through a fairly tumultuous thirty year period starting in the

late 1880s. In 1888, the library was relocated to the newly developed Civic Center area of San

Francisco and opened in the Larkin Street wing of City Hall (Wiley, 1996). Although this

location provided more space than that available at Pacific Hall, it was not enough to keep up

with the library’s rapid growth. Five years later, in 1893, the library was relocated within City

Hall to occupy several floors of the McAllister Street wing (San Francisco Public Library, n.d.).

It is at this location that a Juvenile Department was added to the library. In 1897, an elevator

was installed for ease of movement between floors of the library (Wiley, 1996).

It is around this time that calls had started to swell throughout the city for the main

library to have its own building. While the Board of Trustees had been trying to achieve this

task from the very beginning, there became more of a public outcry of support for the library to

receive a building of its own. In the fall of 1898, the San Francisco Chronicle ran two different

full page articles calling for the construction of a new building for the library (Loughead, 1898a;

Loughead, 1898b). Each article is accentuated with illustrations of libraries from cities

throughout the United States, with some English examples as well, as inspiration and aspiration

of what the library’s future home could be for the city of San Francisco.

The year 1901 brought the Free Library and its supporters that much closer to their goal.

San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan secured $750,000 in funding from Andrew Carnegie to

help establish a permanent location for the main library as well as to help fund several new

branch libraries (Wiley, 1996). However, this money would be tied up in political dealings for


eleven years until 1912, with bickering largely focused on how much of the funds would go

towards the main library and how much to the development of branches (Kelley, 2001). In the

meantime, renowned architect Daniel Burnham - known for his efforts in the planning and

development of cities such as Chicago and downtown Washington, D.C. as well as the Flatiron

Building in NYC, among others - created a grand design plan for the city of San Francisco,

including a new main library building located at the Civic Center. Unfortunately, it is also

during this waiting period that tragedy struck San Francisco in the form of the 1906 earthquake

and fire. Much of the city was destroyed during these events including City Hall, which was still

home to the Main Library. Over 80 percent of the library’s collection was destroyed, an

estimated 140,000 items (San Francisco Public Library, n.d.). Several temporary library

locations were established around the Civic Center area following these events to house what

remained of the collection.

The new dedicated location of the Main Library would finally open in 1917. The

construction was funded by the remains of the Carnegie grant that were not used for the funding

of branch library developments (roughly half of the initial $750,000) and a collection of bond

funds that totaled $780,000 (Kelley, 2001). The Main Library was situated on a full city block

bound by Larkin, Fulton, Hyde, and McAllister streets (the site is currently home to the Asian

Art Museum with the current location of the Main Library being just across Fulton Street).

George W. Kelham designed the winning plan in the Beaux-Arts style. The exterior of the

building was constructed of granite and decorated with Roman arches and Ionic columns (Wiley,

1996). The first floor of the building housed the newspaper room, a room for the blind, the

juvenile department, and a women’s room, while the second floor held the music library

(including a piano), an art room, and the reference and general reading rooms (“New Library


Open”, 1917). The design was also with growth in mind. The book stacks in the building ran

from the basement to the top floor and were designed to “hold 500,000 books with the ability to

expand to 1 million volumes” (Wiley, 1996). Given all of the previous setbacks and catastrophes

in the structural history of the Main Library, the new building was completed seemingly without

incident on February 15, 1917.

Conclusion

The Main Library of the San Francisco Public Library has had a complex and tumultuous

history. While the library lacked for consistency in terms of its home foundation for much of its

early development, through the dedicated work of its librarians and Board of Trustees it was able

to develop and evolve with the times and the needs of its patrons, regardless of the heavy

financial constraints that it was often saddled with. Although he was not the best fit for the

institution in the long run, the selection of Frederic Beecher Perkins as head librarian was

forward thinking in terms of his active role in the development and contemporary thought on the

state and methodologies of librarianship. Through its meager beginnings as the Free Public

Library with no budget to speak of to the achievement nearly forty years later of receiving its

own building, the Main Library and its librarians and staff had shown considerable resilience and

resourcefulness to keep their institution alive.


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Appendix

Historical Images From the Early Years of the Main Library

Figure 1. California Theatre, 1865. The Pacific Hall, the first location for the Free Public Library, was located on the second floor of the California Theatre. (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, 1865).


Figure 2. City Hall in ruins, 1906, from Larkin and Grove Street. Previous to the 1906 earthquake, the Main Library had been located in the McAllister Street wing of City Hall. It was largely destroyed with the rest of the building. (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, 1906).


Figure 3. Main Library, 1917, 1918. The first building designed and dedicated to the Main Library, shortly after completion. (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, 1917-1918).

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