{"id":547996,"date":"2026-01-28T00:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547996\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:42:11","slug":"from-750-books-to-art-deco-grandeur-how-las-100-year-old-central-library-came-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/547996\/","title":{"rendered":"From 750 books to Art Deco grandeur: How LA\u2019s 100-year-old Central Library came to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles hits a big milestone this year: It\u2019s turning 100 years old.<\/p>\n

The century-old landmark has been through a lot of changes since opening, but how we got this iconic library in the first place is a saga in its own right.<\/p>\n

A scrappy start<\/p>\n

To understand what it took to get here, we\u2019ll go back to 1872. Back then, the city of L.A. only had about 6,000 residents. Dirt roads were everywhere and agriculture was king.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

The region was still fresh off the transition to American rule, and local leaders were just starting to dream up what the city could look like, especially in the downtown area.<\/p>\n

There was no \u201cLAPL\u201d during this time \u2014 a group called the Los Angeles Library Association attended to local reading needs. John Szabo, current L.A. city librarian, says that early system was pretty bare bones.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt was a very small one room library with a handful of books,\u201d he told host Larry Mantle on LAist 89.3\u2019s AirTalk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That was in the Downey Block building<\/a> at Temple and Main streets, which is where the Federal Courthouse stands today. There were newspaper racks and shelves with about 750 books, while another space had checkers and chess \u2014 because what more do you need to fuel young minds?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Downey Block building circa 1897.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Courtesy The Huntington Digital Library\/Ernest Marquez Collection<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

The city needed a lot more because of rapid growth, but money was an issue. To help meet the demand, the association became an official city department in 1878. That allowed local officials to fund their new \u201cLos Angeles Public Library.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, LAPL would open satellite \u201creading rooms\u201d and branch libraries. However, the main collection was expanding quickly. The books were essentially couch-surfing for years. They moved four times<\/a> into different rented spaces, including into City Hall in 1889.<\/p>\n

This was a temporary home that lasted for a couple of decades. Then, the effort to build a central library picked up steam. One of those was with a plan to put it in Pershing Square, but the project went awry. So the collection moved again \u2014 this time into a department store building (while it was still running<\/a>), between women\u2019s clothes and furniture, where it stayed for six years.<\/p>\n

A new, innovative library<\/p>\n

When Everett Perry<\/a>, an energetic city librarian, took the helm in 1911, he lobbied for years for a central library to be created.<\/p>\n

Finally, a decade later, voters passed a measure for a $2 million bond to pay for a new dedicated building. That would become the Central Library we have today. L.A. was a little late among large U.S. cities for getting a central library, but it finally opened in July 1926.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Central Library’s rotunda and ornate ceiling, which is designed to mirror the mosaic pyramid on the exterior roof.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Public Library\/Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Collection<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

The building was designed by New York architect Bertram Goodhue with art deco and Egyptian influence, common motifs of the time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s elaborately decorated with murals, mosaics and sculptures. For example, black marble sphinxes sit inside and a mosaic tile pyramid \u200awith a handheld torch makes up the roof. Szabo says it was well received by Angelenos.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aOf course I\u2019m biased, but I think it\u2019s the most beautiful library in the world,\u201d Szabo said. \u201c\u200a[It was] a great sense of pride in a growing city, sort of putting L.A. on the map.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles hits a big milestone this year: It\u2019s turning 100 years old.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":547997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,7584,240863,2961,240862,224,100710,5337],"class_list":["post-547996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-central-library","tag-goodhue-building","tag-la","tag-la-library","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-public-library","tag-losangeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115969952968189308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}