Friends and Workers Gather for Library’s Last Chapter

This was one time when it was OK to be noisy in the library.

Old friends gathered Tuesday to chat and share memories at the curtain call for the Mission Viejo Library on Chrisanta Drive, which closed its doors for the last time after 26 years.

The library, serving a community that grew from a rural outpost to a city of 92,000, was outdated and overcrowded, but not unloved.

“It’s going to be very strange not to come here every Thursday,” said Millie Erxleben, a 17-year Mission Viejo resident who has been a library volunteer for the last decade. “What I’ll miss most are the people. It has been such a wonderful group to be around.”

When the city’s new 27,650-square-foot library opens Oct. 25 at La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway, it will have a new staff. City officials opted to hire their own personnel rather than contract with the county.

The county will open a library next month in Aliso Viejo, however, and the Mission Viejo staff will transfer there. On Tuesday, former librarians and patrons came by to say goodbye.

“Mission Viejo grew up along with this library,” said Ruth Pressley, who retired last month after 26 years as a Mission Viejo librarian. “I’ve seen the children grow and come here as adults.”

Opened in 1971, the 9,155-square-foot library was the only place to check out books between Irvine and San Juan Capistrano.

“We would get 200 kids for storytelling, because there was nothing else to do here,” said Merrial Jiuffre, who worked in the library from 1971 to 1988. “There were no movies or anything else.”

But the building that served 12,000 residents in 1971 was desperately undersized just 15 years later.

“We need the space so badly,” Erxleben said. “It’s sad, but sometimes change is good.”