New, Improved Library to Rise From Fallbrook Ashes

It has been more than a year, but the images are still seared in Maxine Moudry’s memory.

On April 1, 1985, a teen-age arsonist set fire to the tiny county library that served this rural community. Flames rippled into the early-morning sky, leaping from bookshelf to bookshelf, consuming everything from thick volumes of Shakespeare to the colorful picture books of Dr. Seuss.

“We were all horrified,” recalled Moudry, a member of Fallbrook’s Friends of the Library group. “Nothing was salvageable. . . . A terrible pall fell over the entire community.”

The pain of the town’s loss eased a bit Monday. As about 150 residents gathered at the library site, now swept clean by bulldozers, Moudry joined other community and county officials to break ground for a new $1.3-million library slated for completion by early spring, 1987.

Dignitaries including Catherine Lucas, the county’s chief librarian, and County Supervisor Paul Eckert, spooned up shovelfuls of earth.

“Today there’s a new beginning,” Eckert said, “When a tragedy like this occurs, the only thing you can do is start to rebuild.”

The event marked the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the county’s first branch library in Fallbrook. In the years since then, the library had become a prime cultural center for this small, unincorporated community.

“It’s always been one of the most important buildings in the entire city,” said Moudry, who until recently served as Friends of the Library president. “It was used by all groups, all ages.”

More than 30,000 books and numerous irreplaceable mementos, including microfilm on the history of local settlers, were destroyed in the blaze, the largest and costliest fire in recent Fallbrook history. In January, Darryl Ray Mick, 19, was placed on probation for five years, and ordered to undergo counseling and pay $3,000 restitution after he pleaded guilty to setting the blaze.

Within a week of the blaze, before the ruins had even been cleared, community leaders gathered to discuss plans to reconstruct the gutted library.

Although insurance would cover most of the construction cost, library officials were eager to go even further. It was decided that a new library should be double the size of the 17-year-old, 4,000-square-foot building so it could better meet the escalating needs of the reading public.

“For several years we had been talking about expanding the facility but there were no county funds for it,” said Nancy Saint John, San Diego County library spokeswoman.

Donations of books and money began pouring in from throughout North County. Friends of the Library and other community groups held dinners, book fairs and a classic car show. The local fire department put on a basketball game to raise money for the cause.

“I was sure this would happen, that the community would rally around this cause,” Moudry said. “Fallbrook is just that kind of community.”

When the dust had settled, about $200,000 had been raised--far short of the nearly $400,000 officials expect will be needed to augment the insurance money and build the bigger library.

So organizers have launched another fund-raising effort, peddling symbolic square-foot chunks of the library for $25. In exchange for the cash, a contributor receives a blue-enamel pin and the honor of having his or her name listed on a board that will go inside the new library.

The building contract for the project is expected to be awarded this week, with construction starting by June.