Children at the Public Library, by Ellen Garfield Smith.

 

Ellen died in August 1938

Penrose Memorial Library groundbreaking ceremony at Whitman College in February 1956, and students moving the collection from the old Reynolds Hall to the new building in March 1957. File photos courtesy of the Union-Bulletin.

President Chester Maxey on left

June 1956

November 1956

Old library was in Reynolds Hall seen in background

March 1st 1957

Library Director Ruth Reynolds at Reynolds Hall 

What may be the last armloads of books from Reynolds Hall.

Public Library operated in this 1905 Carnegie building until moving to new quarters in 1970. Photos in November 2006 by Joe Drazan.

Main floor fireplace

Basement fireplace

Carnegie Library construction (1905) and its building contract with architect Henry Osterman. The first page of the accession book from the Library Association 1879, and the Public Library in 1897.