Old Eagle Rock Library Granted Historic Status : Council Overrides Cultural Heritage Panel, Acts to Save Former ‘Heart of Community’

When the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission ruled earlier this year that the old Eagle Rock library should not be given historical landmark status, citizens grumbled that city officials were casting aside one of the area’s most beloved monuments.

The Spanish mission-style library, residents said, is one of the few remnants remaining from the brief period when Eagle Rock was a city. It should be preserved, they said, as a Los Angeles landmark--the same recognition that has been granted to the old City Hall and the rock after which the city was named.

“The old building means so much to us,” said Ralph Sherman, curator of the tiny Eagle Rock museum in the old City Hall. “It was the heart of the community, a place where we all used to meet, and we’re proud of it.”

Successful Appeal

Residents appealed the commission’s ruling, and on Wednesday the City Council sided with the community, overruling the commission and declaring the library a Los Angeles cultural-historic monument.

The city-owned building, which will be 70 years old this month, has been vacant since a new library was opened nearby in 1981. It is intact except for some minor damage caused by vandals.

“It’s quite an institution, and I’m glad to see it’s getting a little recognition,” said Walter Dickey, who has lived in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood since 1911 and who is president of the Eagle Rock Historical Society. “Here in Eagle Rock we have very fond memories of the old library. Many generations have grown up with it.”

With its landmark status, the building is eligible for state and federal funding for the preservation of historic sites, although such money is difficult to obtain and is heavily dependent on budget forecasts, said Ileana Welch, coordinator of the Cultural Heritage Commission.

The status also means that the building cannot be razed and any person or business wanting to buy it would be prevented from doing extensive remodeling unless there was an “extraordinary” circumstance, Welch said.

Marilyn Johnson, director of branches for the Los Angeles Library Department, said the city has no plans for the building, although City Councilman Arthur Snyder said he may seek funding to turn it into a community arts center.

Since it was built in 1915 with money provided to Eagle Rock by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, the old library in the 2200 block of Colorado Boulevard has served many functions for the community. Although its architectural value is considered significant by some residents and officials, its history of service to the community was the primary reason the City Council granted it landmark status.

When residents needed a place to discuss issues facing the area, the building was invariably the location, Dickey said. The library’s basement was frequently used for music and dance recitals.

Before the Northeast YMCA office was built in 1970, many YMCA activities were operated from the building, said Dorothy Beichel, president of the Friends of Eagle Rock Library.

Military Connection

During the two world wars, men registered for the armed forces at the draft board in the library, and, when the wars ended, the men proudly displayed their combat medals in glass cases near the entrance to the building.

“You could really call the old library the hub of Eagle Rock, a place that sort of linked the whole area together,” said Snyder, whose district includes the community.

The building was so popular that soon after Eagle Rock was annexed to Los Angeles in 1923, after 12 years of incorporation, the library had to be enlarged. A Glendale construction firm completed the renovation in 1927 along the designs of a Spanish mission with white stucco cement and a red tile roof.

The building has a garden and reading area on the roof and a long wooden colonnade leading up from the Rockland Avenue entrance.

But the building eventually began to fall behind the times. Among the problems: it was not accessible to handicapped people, it had no parking lot, it didn’t have enough shelf space for books and the inside reading area was too small.

Circulation Dropped

“Our circulation was dropping off because of all those things,” head librarian Teri Manix said. “Many of our patrons were going to the Glendale library, and there was really nothing we could do to keep them from leaving.”

The old library suffered structural damage during the 1971 earthquake, and bringing it up to health and safety codes would have been too expensive, Snyder said.

Instead of remodeling the old building, a new library was built a few blocks away that is twice as big and has air conditioning and a computerized book-circulation system.

The old library was closed in October, 1981. Since then it has been used mainly for storage and by an occasional transient seeking shelter.

In 1983, the Los Angeles Conservancy, a private nonprofit group dedicated to historical preservation, nominated the building for historic landmark status to the Cultural Heritage Commission, a city-appointed panel that reviews such nominations and recommends whether the sites should receive additional consideration by the council.

Ecclesiastical Theme

“We felt the building was very significant architecturally because it was modeled as part of an ecclesiastical theme following the Spanish Colonial revival style that was going on back then,” said Ruthann Leher, executive director of the conservancy.

The commission, however, felt differently and on Feb. 6 rejected the old library for landmark status.

Welch said the building was turned down because commissioners felt it lost its architectural significance when it was remodeled in 1927.

“From what we saw then compared to what we saw when the library was originally built in 1915, it was a totally different building,” Welch said. “When someone does remodeling work, that is not a positive step toward landmark status, and we weren’t persuaded to declare it a landmark.”

But Councilman Snyder said that the five-member panel judged the building only for its architectural value and did not view the library for its social and cultural importance to the community, which is a consideration in the process.

Community Feeling

The commission, however, did not receive enough information regarding the feeling of the community, so the library was judged only for its architectural design, Commissioner Bernard Judge said.

After the rejection, residents approached Snyder to round up support for the library, and, two weeks ago, the councilman and 15 community leaders appeared before the council’s Recreation, Library and Cultural Affairs Committee. After hearing brief arguments in support of the library, the three-member committee overruled the cultural commission and unanimously voted to make the building a historic landmark.

The committee sent its recommendation to the council, which approved the status Wednesday.

Plans for the library are uncertain. Snyder estimates it would cost $600,000 to turn it into a community arts center. Funding may be provided through state bond money that has been set aside for preservation of historic landmarks, he said, adding that his office may apply for such money.

“The most important thing is that the building be maintained for public use,” Snyder said. “It is a building that has always been open to the public to serve a need, and we want to make sure it stays that way.”