Town’s Tiny Library May Be About to Enter a New Chapter

The Lilliputian world of Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” would have loved the wooden 270-square-foot library on the edge of Tomales Bay, 40 miles north of San Francisco.

In fact, the tiny inhabitants of Swift’s fictional land probably would be hoisting “Save the Library” signs.

That’s because plans are being laid to move what is considered the smallest free-standing branch library in the United States into the oldest house in town, a historic structure known as “The Gables.”

The little library, which has a tiny outhouse, a space heater and no running water, is so popular that 3,571 books circulate through the branch almost every month from crammed shelves that hold only about 3,600 selections.

And it’s open for only a few hours three days a week.

People Queue Up

“People stand outside waiting for the doors to open,” said part-time librarian Barbara Myman. “We’ve had as many as 15 people in here at one time, but some of them were children.”

Myman said that the library sorely needs more room and that the town’s residents generally are behind the plan to move the branch to the 1894 Gables, offered by historian James Mason, who died in January of cancer. Mason, a retired newspaper editor, local history buff and longtime resident, had said he wanted to donate the house for the library to use after his death.

Marin County Library officials and the Inverness Assn. and Foundation must decide whether to accept Mason’s offer of The Gables for the library. The offer stipulates that Mason’s daughter, Barbara Jean McClellan, be paid $500 a month for the rest of her life.

At present, only $100 is paid to rent the rectangular library building, which has no room for tables or chairs except for a librarian’s desk, squeezed in near a window looking over picturesque Tomales Bay.

County Librarian Sharon Hammer called the proposed move to Mason’s house “a wonderful plan” that would provide a place for study or research.

“The existing library is darling, but it’s very, very inadequate,” she said.

Possible Source of Funds

Inverness Assn. President Alan Johnstone said he believed that the money to pay the stipend to Mason’s daughter could be obtained from the San Francisco Foundation through the multimillion-dollar Buck Fund.

He said the large four-bedroom Gables already contains a West Marin museum built by Mason and would have room for offices, studios for writers or artists and space for other library activities such as story-telling.

Myman said closing the tiny library of 15 years would be a nostalgic loss to the community and to many of the people who travel long distances to visit the branch.

“It’s a toss-up between tradition and the needs of the community,” she said. “What we won’t get as often is the tourists. It’s really funny how this library attracts them.”