WATTS : Groundbreaking for Long-Sought Library

Maureen Williams couldn’t believe her eyes last week when she saw the lot at 102nd Street and Compton Avenue crowded with city officials declaring that a new library would soon fill the space.

“I didn’t think it would be built,” said Williams, a 45-year resident of the neighborhood. “But eventually it had to be built because it’s needed so badly here.”

For nearly a year, Williams and other residents have walked past the billboard heralding the site for the new Watts Branch Library. Nine months of delays because of funding and other problems had residents questioning the future of the lot at 10205 Compton Ave.

But Monday, Williams watched as community activists and city officials, including Councilman Rudy Svornich Jr. and his predecessor, Joan Milke-Flores, proclaimed the library a reality during the groundbreaking ceremony.

“When you think of a library in Watts, think of it as the inner-city mecca in the middle of charcoal alley,” said Alma Woods, president of the Friends of the Watts Branch Library, referring to the stretch of 103rd Street destroyed in the 1965 riots.

The new library is scheduled to open by the fall, 1995, as part of the 1.3-acre Westminster Watts Civic Center office complex. The complex will include several banks, as well as a family-style restaurant, although the project’s developer, the Westminster Neighborhood Assn., has yet to find a restaurant group willing to commit to the space.

Project manager Keith Dillard said he expects construction to begin by June. The 12,500-square-foot library, with shelving for 45,000 books, will be nearly three times the size of the existing library at 1501 E. 103rd St. and will include a community meeting room and a new automated circulation system.

For many such as Woods and Williams, the new library and complex are part of a changing image for Watts.

“The world must know we’re an asset to society, not a liability,” Woods said.

For others it signals the fulfillment of promises made following the Watts riots.

“I think this represents a phase in the changes our community has made since 1965 and a continuation of the promises made between residents and officials to collaborate and influence the future of this area,” said James Woods of the Watts Towers Community Action Council.

The new $2.8-million library is funded through a $1.5-million Community Redevelopment Agency grant and $1.3 million from a 1989 bond measure.