Day 35, Tuesday March 19: Petaluma, California to Lincoln, California

Carnegie libraries visited: Dixon, Woodland, Sacramento, Lincoln

Dayse sober: 271

Not every day on an adventure is adventurous. When Kelly and I spent those seven weeks hiking along the Continental Divide in 1980, most days held hours of walking along mountain trails, or bushwacking through forests, or tromping down logging roads, in ways that allowed quiet contemplation, sweat, sore feet, and only moments of wonder. A few days I do recall vividly without a prompt: traversing the Skyline Trail in Glaational Park, following the Chinese Wall in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area, crossing behind the Grand Tetons. If I read my daily journal, it brings back the rest of “ordinary” days. Now, if I just knew where that journal was…

My journaling on this trip has been haphazard. Some days, I do it for a couple of hours. Some days I don’t write at all. This was one of those days. I don’t remember why, although it could have been that the day was simply too beautiful. Possibly I was preoccupied, as spending all day alone in a car gives one lots of time to preoccupy. Maybe I just didn’t feel like writing although, because I didn’t write that down, I can’t tell for sure. I visited the Petaluma library at 8 a.m. and the library in Sacramento close to 7 p.m., leaving me 11 hours to drive less than 100 miles. I must have done something during all of those hours.

My drive took me out of the Marin Headlands, the hilly peninsula that leads north from across the Golden Gate Bridge, into the heart of central California: Sacramento. When my son Chris was just two years old, and his brother Kitt an infant, my family would sometime take that long winding road up the east side of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to explore the Muir Woods National Monument, the Point Bonita Lighthouse, and the Mount Tamalpais State Park. One time we splurged on lunch at The Spinnaker in Sausalito on the edge of Richardson Bay. The only thing I remember about that lunch is that Lisa and I never were able to sit down and eat at the same time, as young Chris, proud of his ability to run, wanted to dash around outside the entire time.

Petaluma Carnegie Library

The Carnegie Library in Petaluma has been repurposed as a historical library and museum. The Napa County Library is a product of the Excelsior Club, a group of 19th-century young men (credit where credit is due). Napa Valley may be famous for its wines, such as the 2023 Jasud Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, which tastes of “blackberry and plum, amid notes of meat, sweet black olive, and black pepper.” Its library has visual notes of poured concrete with a strong bunker finish. It was built in 1974, when building Brutalist buildings was still a thing. Thanks, but I think I’ve had enough.

Napa County Library

Dixon Carnegie Library

The Dixon Women’s Improvement Club has been improving Dixon since 1899. The Carnegie Library there credits the club with obtaining the grant: “In 1911, members of the Dixon Women’s Improvement Club decided that the community needed a library.  Mrs. Robert J. Currey, club president, wrote to Andrew Carnegie asking for his assistance in building a library to serve the town’s 827 citizens.” She was not the first to ask. J.H. Peterson, President of the Bank of Dixon, beat her to it, as he wrote Carnegie in 1905. He did not get a response.

Peterson wrote again in 2011, a few weeks before Currey weighed in, on club stationery. Her letter is written as a proclamation, full of “whereas” (“Whereas the City of Dixon…”) with one resolution: “Be it resolved by the Women’s Improvement Club of Dixon, California, that we applaud your world wide philanthropy in the aid of education and library endowments, and knowing our needs we appeal to you to carry out our greatest ambition.” Currey continued to assure Carnegie that the club had the land, and the town had the money. Not receiving a response to this letter, Currey sent another one (handwritten and with the same wording) a few months later. Other requests were sent from the town’s officials. As the town did not yet have 1000 residents, which would be the number required to meet their $10,000 request, the town sought the funding for the entire school district, which had 2,200 residents. (The State of California had authorized the construction of public libraries serving school districts.) A grant was offered. Bertram scolded the town for its design (“we hardly see the necessity for four reading rooms” and, in a later letter, “Apart from the part of the letter which you ignored entirely”) and his annoyance grew (still later, “It is discouraging for me to write a full page letter…[which] was written very plainly”) although when all was said and done the library was built. Along the way, Currey continued sending Bertram “whereas” and “be it resolved” letters to assure him that everything was going to work out just fine.   

Woodland Carnegie Library

The Woodland Public Library, a fine Mission Revival building, is the oldest Carnegie in California, receiving its grant in 1903. The town definitely needed an upgrade from its existing library, which was in a room above the city jail and the fire department’s horse stable. “The building is badly cracked and considered by many very unsafe. Whenever we have a severe wind the librarian is afraid to stay in the building.” That the town had a library at all was due to the efforts of the women (such as Mrs. Frank Baker, Mrs. P. C. Fenner, Mrs. E. Craft and Mrs. G. D. Fiske) who hosted ice cream socials to raise money and collect books. When the library’s cornerstone was laid in 1904, Mrs. W. P. Craig, President of the Women's Improvement Club, spoke on behalf of the "Women's Work in the Foundation of Our Library.”

When we are reminded of the fact that the first library was started, and afterward maintained by the ladies, it seems fittingly appropriate that some representative of the Women's Improvement Club should [speak]. 

The Library Association was organized just thirty years ago on the 22d day...of July, 1874…The library was organized by the efforts of the ladies of Woodland, and the entertainments for the benefits were given under their auspices. The first volumes were donated and additional volumes were afterwards purchased with the proceeds from these various entertainments given for the benefits of the library. A librarian was in constant attendance, and the people were permitted not only to visit the library, but also to take books to their homes. Although the expense of maintaining a library was quite heavy, the association was able to add additional books each quarter; thus constantly making valuable and numerous additions to its collection of books. From 1874 to 1879 the ladies spared no pains and worked diligently to make the enterprise a success, but notwithstanding they did all in their power, they were unable to secure sufficient funds to maintain the library as first instituted. They gave many entertainments, but the decrease in membership, the neglect of many to pay their dues and other obstacles which they could not overcome compelled them to close the library in 1879. This step was reluctantly taken by the ladies after every effort was exhausted to secure sufficient funds to continue the good work.

In the fall of 1880, the association arranged to place the books in a mercantile establishment conducted by one of the directors under whose direction the people were once more permitted to enjoy the benefits of the library. New books were added from time to time. But again the location was changed and again they were unable to secure sufficient funds to pay the expenses of maintaining and conducting the library. In about a year from that time, discouraged and by no means in a prosperous financial condition, they were compelled to box the books until such time as prospects seemed brighter. In 1881, undaunted by the experiences of the past, they rented rooms in the Thomas & Clanton Building and re-opened the library. They secured funds and completed and furnished the rooms, which were thrown open to the public three evenings and one afternoon of each week under the direction of one of the board of directors who tendered her services gratuitously.

In August 1888 the members of the association arranged with the Young Men's Christian Association to consolidate the two libraries. A library was maintained for the benefit of the public for some time. After about five months had elapsed, the association regretted to learn that the Y.M.C.A. library rooms, through lack of financial support, were not kept open or the books looked after properly. Owing to this situation, the directors in January 1889 took charge of the books and stored them until May, 1891, when they were placed in the hands of the city board of library trustees of the city of Woodland.

From this history it will be seen the people of Woodland are indebted to these good ladies for their energies and gratuitous work, not only in organizing but in maintaining and supporting a free library until such time as municipal authorities became interested in the movement and opened the free library supported by the municipality.

The Carnegie library almost didn’t happen. In their correspondence with Bertram, the Library Trustees had pledged to buy a specific plot of land, and the agreement was based on that agreement. The City Trustees – the two newly elected ones, anyway – wanted the library to be on their side of town, and enacted the required levy on the condition that their favored lot be used. As The Evening Bee reported in 1903, the Library Trustees were “already very indignant” at the city and were not “likely to abide meekly with the city’s ultimatum.” Unless agreement was reached, the deal was off. Under California law, library trustees were authorized to control all funds and trusts dedicated to libraries. Mr. M.C. Jones, writing to Carnegie on his own behalf (he doesn’t list his affiliation on his letter, while claiming that his views were "unprejudiced and impartial”), stated that 

Such bitter strife has awakened much feeling and created sectional strife of a bitter kind, and the best thing for the city now, perhaps, is that you withdraw your grant altogether, since the possession of it will keep the citizens in a ferment of discord for years to come…

One of the Library Trustees also wrote Carnegie an impassioned letter about the “unhappy wrangle.” After calling one of the City Trustees a “childish and weak-minded old man” he asked Bertram to withhold the funds from them. Bertram was having none of it: “Mr. Carnegie cannot interfere in local affairs. He recognizes only the city government.” The Library Trustees fought the law, and the law won: the library was built on the north side of town, where the City Trustees wanted it. One hopes that over the last century the hard feelings have softened. No one mentioned the controversy at the groundbreaking ceremony, although you can bet that some in the audience were choking back their desire to bitch.