Old Library Begins New Chapter

Built in memory of 20 Los Angeles High School graduates who were killed in World War I, the red brick library in the Mid-City area has lain shuttered for the last six years after it failed to meet seismic codes.

The English Tudor-style building was reopened Monday, after a $2-million renovation that pays homage to the past while offering the technology of the future.

“[The renovation] maintains the historic integrity of a library that has been so important to this community,” said Fontayne Holmes, assistant director of branches for the Los Angeles library system. “At the same time, it takes us into the 21st century, with all the computers, the conduits and the electronic hookups of a modern library facility.

“It really connects the past and the present and the future.”

Memorial Library--built in 1930--is distinguished by a wall of meticulously crafted stained-glass windows, with the names of the Los Angeles High School alumni who died in the war and the inscription “Peace Among Nations.” Now, with money raised through a 1989 bond measure and a grant from the Weingart Foundation, the facility is equipped with computers with access to the World Wide Web.

The branch--located on the edge of a small neighborhood park at 4625 W. Olympic Blvd.--is also equipped with workstations that offer electronic access to databases in downtown’s Central Library. In addition to seismic upgrades, the 10,500-square-foot building has been expanded to include a second wall of stained glass windows, designed by the great-grandson of the man who made the library’s original panels honoring the fallen soldiers.

“Here it is, 70 years later,” said Bill Judson, who designed the new windows to depict the various categories of the Dewey Decimal System. “It was neat to be able to pay respect and to harmonize with my great-grandfather’s artwork and add my own flavor.”

About 300 people celebrated Monday’s reopening of the historic library, whose construction was paid for in part with nickels and dimes raised by the area’s children three-quarters of a century ago.

“It brings back some very, very personal memories,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge H. Randolph Moore Jr., president of Los Angeles High School’s Alumni Assn.

He recalled a morning in September 1945, when he got off the bus to attend classes for the first time at the high school, located across the street from the library.

“I looked over at this plot of ground and the little building back beyond trees, and I asked my sister, ‘What is that?’ ” Moore told the crowd. “She said, ‘You better remember what that is. That’s Memorial Library and that’s Senior Park.’ ”

There was a tradition among the school’s students, Moore’s sister explained to him that September. “Unless you are a senior at L.A. High School, there are two things that you cannot do,” she told him. “One, you cannot wear white corduroy. And, two, you better not go into Senior Park. If you are caught over there, your pants go up the flagpole.”

For 2 1/2 years after that, Moore stayed away from the library. Finally, when he was a senior, he ventured over twice to peak inside.

On Monday, he visited the quaint brick building for the third time.

“Now here it is, almost 50 plus years, and I got another look at the library,” Moore said.

He quipped: “It won’t be another 50 years before I use it again.”