Los Angeles Branch Libraries MPD Update - MPD Cover

8/6/2019 Los Angeles Branch Libraries MPD Update - MPD Cover

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NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012)

United States Department of the InteriorNational Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form

This form is used for documenting property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin How toComplete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested information. For additional spaceuse continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items

New Submission X Amended Submission

A. Name of Multiple Property ListingLos Angeles Branch Library System

B. Associated Historic Contexts(Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.)

Los Angeles Public Library Branches, 1913-1964

C. Form Prepared byname/title Stephen Duncan, PhD Candidate

organization UC Riverside date 9/20/2010

street & number 1027 S Westmoreland Ave telephone (646) 734-7067

city or town Los Angeles state CA zip code 90006

e-mail [email protected]

D. CertificationAs the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentation formmeets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the

National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR 60 and the Secretary of theInteriors Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.(_________ See continuation sheet for additional comments.)

Signature and title of certifying official Date

State or Federal Agency or Tribal government

I hereby certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related

properties for listing in the National Register.

Signature of the Keeper Date of Action


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NPS Form 10-900-b (Rev. 01/2009) OMB No. 1024-0018

Los Angeles Branch Library System CAName of Multiple Property Listing State

Table of Contents for Written NarrativeProvide the following information on continuation sheets. Cite the letter and title before each section of the narrative. Assign page numbers according to

the instructions for continuation sheets in National Register Bulletin How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (formerly 16B). Fill inpage numbers for each section in the space below.

Page Numbers

E. Statement of Historic Contexts(if more than one historic context is documented, present them in sequential order.)

Page 2

F. Associated Property Types(Provide description, significance, and registration requirements.)

Page 14

G. Geographical Data Page 18

H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods(Discuss the methods used in developing the multiple property listing.)

Page 19

I. Major Bibliographical References(List major written works and primary location of additional documentation: State Historic Preservation Office, other State

agency, Federal agency, local government, university, or other, specifying repository.)

Page 20

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate

properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain abenefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.).Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18 hours per response including time for reviewinginstructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect ofthis form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, PO Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office ofManagement and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503.


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NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5-31-2012)

United States Department of the Interior PutNational Park Service

National Register of Historic PlacesContinuation Sheet

Section number E Page 1

Los Angeles Branch Library System

Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State


Name of multiple listing (if applicable)

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR CONTINUATION SHEETS

E. Statement of Historic Contexts ....................................................................................................................................... 2INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 2SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE .................................................................................................. 2CONTEXT #1: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING, 19301964 (Criterion A) ........ 4

Early History of the LAPL ....................................................................................................................... 4Postwar Construction and the 1957 Bond Issue ........................................................................ 5

Neighborhood development and urban expansion, 19301960 ........................................... 6CONTEXT #2: MUNICIPAL ARCHITECTURE, LIBRARIES, & POSTWAR MODERNISM (MID

CENTURY MODERNISM) (CRITERION C) ..................................................................................... 11

F. Associated Property Types ............................................................................................................................................ 14Property Type Name: ............................................................................................................................................ 14Property Type Description: ................................................................................................................................ 14Property Type Significance: ............................................................................................................................... 15Property Type Registration Requirements: ................................................................................................ 15

G. Geographical Data ............................................................................................................................................................. 18

H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods ......................................................................................... 19

I. Major Bibliographical References ................................................................................................................................ 20


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State



E. Statement of Historic Contexts

INTRODUCTION

In 1987, twentytwo branch libraries of the Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) were listedin the National Register of Historic Places under the Thematic Group nomination Los AngelesBranch Library System (19131930). 1 The branch libraries were considered significant underboth National Register criterion A for their association with community planning anddevelopment during important periods of municipal growth, and criterion C for their embodimentof distinctive architectural styles characteristic of the region and period.

The period of significance listed in the nomination is 19131930, encompassing the earliest majorbuilding programs of the LAPL. However, ending the period of significance in 1930 was basedupon the National Register fiftyyear criterion for eligibility, and it does not reflect any permanentcessation in the construction of historically significant branch libraries. This amendment seeks toextend the period of significance for this Multiple Property nomination to 1960, to includelibraries built in the postwar period and after the 1957 bond issue, as well as to provide afoundation for the future extension of the period of significance to eventually include branchlibraries built after 1960.2 The period of significance ending date of 1960 for this amendment isbased on the National Registers fiftyyear criterion for eligibility. In fact, the building programfunded by the 1957 bond issue continued through the 1964 completion of the Van Nuys branch

library.

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Los Angeles Branch Library System was one of the earliest major libraries established in thewestern United States, and it remains one of the largest publicly funded libraries in the world.Throughout its history it has been one of the largest circulating libraries in the United States, andits tremendous growth in the first half of the 20th century led to Los Angeles becoming, by midcentury, the city with the highest rate of borrowing library books of any in the United States. 3 By

1 The National Register nomination was first prepared in 1978, revised in 1984 and 1985, and the current version was received in1985 and entered on May 9, 1987.

The nomination was prepared on a standard NPS 10900 form, the same used for individual properties at the time, and the

resource type was specified as a Thematic Group. Under current nomenclature, this nomination would have been prepared as a

Multiple Property Documentation form, using this form 101900b.2After consultation with the California SHPO office, this current document is presented as an MPD amendment, and for the

purposes of this amendment the previous Thematic Group nomination will be considered as an MPD listing.3 Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In The

Development of Los Angeles City Government, an Institutional History, 18502000 (Volume 2) . Los Angeles City Historical Society,

2007, p. 629


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State



the 1960s, the library would become the largest public library in the country, with over 3.5 millionvolumes.4

However, as the 1987 nomination of the LAPL Branch Libraries makes clear, the permanentlibrary buildings within the LAPL are not significant only for their functional roles within thisimpressive library system. In addition, libraries were perceivedfirst by the City of Los Angelesas a whole, and then later by the individual communities in which branch libraries were locatedas symbols of community pride and achievement. Libraries were seen as both evidence of, andcontributors to, the cultural maturation of neighborhoods and municipalities. This sense ofcommunity involvement is reflected, on a broad scale, by the fact that the library building

programs throughout the 20th century have been funded through public bond issues (in 1923,1925, 1957, and 1989). As the 1987 nomination notes, it is also reflected, at the local level, by thedeep and committed involvement that individual communities have had in the formation of theirown branch libraries: In some instances, local community leaders themselves foundedindependent libraries and sustained them for a year before the Library Board consented tocontinue with a permanent facility.5

In fact, the Los Angeles Library system has, at various times, utilized other venues to distributebooks, venues that have not necessitated the construction of expensive and architecturally uniquesingleuse buildings. An extremely successful bookmobile system, for example, has been utilizedby the city to provide services in underresourced areas or during the construction or renovation

of branches. Similarly, as new neighborhoods developed in the postwar period, the LAPL utilizedpreexisting properties by renting commercial or retail space in which small storefront librariescould be installed. By the eliminating the need for costly capitol construction projects, suchtechniques even have the potential to make significantly more funds available with which to buybooks and provide community access services, as compared to the capital expenditures necessaryfor constructing new buildings. However, as functional and effective as such services might be,they did not fulfill the symbolic role of permanent, dedicated structures, and such storefrontlibraries quickly gave way to permanent structures, many of which have been designed bysignificant architects.

Los Angeless history is one of expansion and agglomeration, and as the 1987 nomination alsonotes, branch library buildings were not only symbolic of the maturation of new neighborhoodsinto fullfledged communities, but were also in many cases reflectiveand even celebratoryofthe new union between previously independent incorporated cities and the larger Los Angelesmunicipality. Some early examples of this were the branches constructed in Eagle Rock and Venicebetween 1923 and 1930, and the facilities constructed in these communities far exceeded the

4 Ibid, p. 6315National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,

CA, National Register #64000066, Section 8


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State



caliber and value of buildings that could have been financed by a separate municipal entity.6 Thestructures, therefore, simultaneously asserted the local neighborhood identity of the communityin which they were situated, while also celebrating the union with the larger municipality of LosAngeles.

In addition to symbolizing cultural maturation or community growth that had already taken place,construction of library branches was also used to express hopes and plans for future communityand civic development and for urban planning. This can be seen, in particular, in the librarybuilding programs in the San Fernando Valley that were funded through the 1957 bond issue, andwhich sought to use libraries as components of planned regional civic centers.

It is this complex and important role as both bellwethers of, and contributors to, cultural andcommunity development that gives LAPL branch libraries their significance under NationalRegister criterion A. It is also this same role that has led to attempts to construct libraries asarchitecturally significant structures, reflective of their cultural and symbolic importance, and inmany cases this effort has succeeded. Within the first decades of the 20 th century, for example, theLibrary Board, [i]n a move to establish a chain of distinctive and permanent landmarkshired animpressive array of local architects to design the buildings comprising the system.7 The success ofthis effort is reflected in the fact that many of these early libraries were indeed listed on theNational Register in 1987, with architecture given as one of the reasons for their significance.This effort to invest in highquality architecture, utilizing authentically regional styles, has

continued throughout the 20th

century and into the 21st

. The architectural forms of the branchlibrary buildings reflects the particular pride with which Angelenos see their community libraries,and has made many libraries some of the more notable buildings in their communities.

CONTEXT #1: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING, 19301964 (Criterion A)

Early History of the LAPL

The cultural and community importance of libraries was apparent from the very beginnings of theLos Angeles Public Library system, which was first founded in 1873 as an institution open to the

public supported by private funding from concerned civic leaders. They saw the library as aninfluence in refining, elevating, [and] ennobling public sentiment in the community.8 By 1878,

6Ibid.7National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,

CA, National Register #64000066, Section 88 Quoted in Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In

The Development of Los Angeles City Government, an Institutional History, 18502000 (Volume 2). Los Angeles City Historical

Society, 2007, p. 614


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Los Angeles, CA

County and State



the city of Los Angeles took over the funding and administration of the library, which wasconsidered to be a milestone marking a turning point in the progress of the city. 9

The library moved from its rented rooms to new quarters at City Hall in 1889, and two years laterit became free to the public when the annual fee of four dollars for borrowing privileges waseliminated. (Circulation jumped by over 700%, to fortytwo thousand volumes per year.)10 Thepredecessors to the LAPL branch libraries were established in 1897, in the form of reading roomsat three local schools. By 1900 there were six additional locations established, inGarvanza/Highland Park, South Pasadena, Whittier, Pomona, Long Beach, and Anaheim, inaddition to the City Hall main library and two delivery stations. By 1901, the circulation was over

a halfmillion volumes per year.11

The most significant early building program for structures dedicated as LAPL branch librariesbegan with a 1911 grant from Andrew Carnegie, who funded the construction of six branchlibraries built between 1913 and 1916. (The only one of these buildings that remains, the VermontSquare Branch, was included on the 1987 listing.) Throughout the remainder of the 20 th century,the principal funding for library expansion and building programs would come from revenuebonds that had been approved through a public vote by the citizens of Los Angeles. The first was a$500,000 bond issue in 1921, followed by another for the same amount in 1925, and togetherthese funded the construction of the twentythree additional branches that were built prior to1930. The bond issues stressed the virtue of libraries as symbols of community development; thecampaign for the 1921 bond, for example, included the slogan Grow up Los Angeles. Own yourown public library and take your place with progressive cities!12

It was the branch libraries that resulted from these building programs that were listed on thenational register in 1987; out of the twentynine built between 1913 and 1930, only seven werenot included on that listing, three having been damaged by the 1971 earthquake and subsequentlydemolished, and four having been drastically altered or renovated prior to listing on the NationalRegister.13

Postwar Construction and the 1957 Bond Issue

Although use of the LAPL system by patrons increased in the two decades after 1930, there were

9 Ibid, p. 61510 Ibid, p. 61611 Ibid, p. 61661712 Quoted in Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In


Society, 2007, p. 62213National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,

CA, National Register #64000066, Section 8


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State



few funds available for significant building of new branches during the depression of the 1930sand during WWII. Significant expansion of the system occurred in the 1950s, however, echoing thepattern of library branch development in the 19111930 period. Like the earlier building program,the postwar building was also a response to incredibly rapid growth and urban development inLos Angeles. The libraries built during this period were functional inasmuch as they served theneeds of a specific population, but there were also symbolic community centers and signifiers ofthe maturation of newlycommunities into fullfledged neighborhoods within the city. This wasshown by the high degree of community involvement and advocacy in the building of some of thebranches, and it was also shown by the celebratory opening ceremonies for new libraries, such asthe 1953 opening of the new Robertson Library branch, attended by the Mayor of Los Angeles and

other city officials.14

Although a small number of new library branches were built in the early 1950s, such as the 1953Robertson branch and the 1952 construction of a new SunlandTujunga branch, the rapidlyincreasing population of the Valley during the 19451960 badly strained the LAPLs resources.Some valley neighborhoods which had been too small for a library branch of their own at thebeginning of the 1950s grew so rapidly that by 1955 the lack of a local library had become aproblem; this was the case with Granada Hills, which increased in population from 3,776 in 1950to 20,580 in 1955.15 By 1956, several hundred thousand Valley residents had no permanentlibrary facilities in their neighborhoods. Limited library services were provided by bookmobilesfrom the LAPL and, in some cases, small storefront libraries in rented spaces.16

In 1957, the voters of Los Angeles passed a $6,400,00 bond issue to expand the LAPL and renovateexisting projects. The bond issue provided funding and authorized twentyeight major buildingand renovation projects, fifteen of which were in the San Fernando Valley. This included theconstruction of branches such as the Van Nuys, Panorama City, Pacoima, Palisades, and CanogaPark branches. Many of these libraries still exist in varying degrees of historical integrity. Thebuilding program continued through the early 1960s, and the final San Fernando Valley projectfunded by this bond issue was the Van Nuys library, completed in 1964.

Neighborhood development and urban expansion, 19301960

Between 1930 and 1960, the population of Los Angeles doubled, going from approximately 1.2million residents in 1930 to approximately 2.4 million residents in 1960. In terms of actualnumbers of people, this was a period of greater growth for the City than any other thirtyyear spanin its entire history. This postwar development of Los Angeles and the vast expansion of

14 Los Angeles Public Library System. LAPL website: A Brief Robertson Branch Library History15 Bob English. BookHungry Valley Towns Await Library Los Angeles Times, Aug 12, 1956, pg. G116 Ibid.


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residential communities, especially in the San Fernando Valley, had a profoundly important role inshaping the city as it is today.

The construction of new library branches was an important part of the development of newresidential areas into neighborhoods or communities. Library branches built or expanded in the1950s reflected the growth of the communities in which they were situated. The libraries alsoreflected the collectivized desire of the community residents themselves. To some extent, aneighborhood library building, rather than service by bookmobile, was an indication that thegeographic area it served had become selfaware as a community. The SunlandTujunga branchwas an early example of this community involvement:

As the Sunland and Tujunga communities grew, the [temporary storefront library]became increasingly unable to meet patrons' needs, and in 1947 a citizen'scommittee was formed to petition for a new facility on city owned property as part aproposed civic unit encompassing a city hall and fire station. The project wasapprovedand the new 4,578squarefoot Sunland Tujunga Branch Libraryopened to the public on Monday, July 28, 1952.17

The history of the Robertson Library shows a similar case of community involvement and suggeststhe high importance that was placed on branch libraries as indicators that individual communitieshad come of age:

Patrons, spearheaded by the editor of the local Pico Post newspaper, pushed for theconstruction of a branch facility, and in 1951 a lot was purchased for a building. Twoyears later, on April 1, the new $89,000 Robertson Branch Library opened followinga brief ceremony sponsored by the local Lions Club and attended by the Mayor ofLos Angeles and many prominent officials. The branch was an immediate success;during the first three months, circulation jumped from 800 books per day at thebook stop to 1,300 books per day at the new building. 18

The extensive community involvement in the building of branch libraries also helps to show that

the libraries were both a reflection of, and a part of, the midtwentiethcentury urban expansionand neighborhood development that has made Los Angeles what it is today. The most obviouselement of community involvement lies in the fact that the library building programs have beenfunded by bond issues, showing that the majority of the voting population was making a clearchoice to improve their communities with new or improved branch libraries. This is perhaps

17 Los Angeles Public Library System. LAPL website: A Brief Sunland Tujunga Branch Library History18 Los Angeles Public Library System. LAPL website: Robertson Branch Library History


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Los Angeles, CA

County and State



particularly notable in light of the powerful resistance that was aroused by propertytax increasesin the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley in 1954 and 1957. 19 More specifically,branch library construction after the 1957 bond issue clearly demonstrated that the libraries werea response to, and a result of, the completely new patterns of postwar urban growth andpopulation accretion that are a foundational element in the twentiethcentury history of LosAngeles. Newspaper articles, for example, pointed out that branches such as the Panorama Citylibrary and others were to be built in areas no prior library service existed, except forbookmobiles.20

Branch library construction in newlydeveloping residential suburbs in Los Angeles in the 1950s

and 1960s, therefore, was often an important reflection of grassroot efforts. Through passingthe bond issues for funding library construction, or through more direct involvement andadvocacy, residents of many Los Angeles neighborhoods have taken part in the process ofdeveloping library branch facilities for specific regions.

At the same time, LAPL Branch Libraries constructed in the 1950s and 1950s also strongly reflectthe involvement of topdown efforts by urban planners who attempted to stimulate healthyregional and neighborhood growth patterns in the new residential developments.

Specifically, the library building programs after WWII were integrated with the contemporaneousplans for regional civic centers in the 1950s. These regional civic centers, responding to massivepopulation growth in the postwar period, were envisioned as central administrative/culturalagglomerations within the new population centers in the Valley. Proposals for these branch orregional civic centers included not only branch administrative centers, or city halls, but also firedepartments, libraries, and other cultural resources all located physically close together.21 Thespatial patterns of development in Los Angeles that led to the plans for these regional civic centerswas tied to the citys particular and unique history, which involved both pioneering communityplanning efforts by the municipality, as well as unprecedented, and often essentially unplanned,suburban development undertaken by private developers in the postwar period.

In 1924, the Major Traffic Street Plan had been designed to facilitate automobile accessibility inthe region, and this was a factor in the growth over time of multiple residential communitiesconnected to each other and to the central business district through a network of freeways.22 The

1924 Traffic Street Plan was itself a product of the nations first regional planning commission,

19 Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. 18220 Panorama City library and 28 other city library projects Los Angeles Times, Mar 30, 1958; pg. F1821 City Planning Commission Report, Accomplishments 1947. Los Angeles, CA22 Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In The


2007, p. 628


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Los Angeles, CA

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established in 1922.23 Regional planning and spatial patterns of urbanization are particularlysignificant in Los Angeles history, as the explosive population growth of the city in the ensuingdecades was inseparable from its geographic growth, as multiple preexisting small communitiesand incorporated municipalities were annexed. This was far different from development patternsin many other older and more spatiallybounded cities. At the same time, in addition to its unusualpatterns of spatial development, Los Angeles growth during much of the 20th century is alsonotable for its unusual magnitude. Drastic demographic change took place in Los Angeles due tothe demand for labor during WWII, for example, and in the 1950s, nearly a quartermillion newresidents settled in the city each year, or as much growth as New York and San Franciscocombined, or twice the growth of Chicago during the same time period.24

As urban historian Mike Davis and others have noted, in the late 1940s, following thetumultuous recomposition of Los Angeles social areas by wartime immigration, planners began tofret about how to reinforce communal identity in older residential neighborhoods and newoutlying suburbs. They meticulously designated over four hundred neighborhood areas25

It was in the San Fernando Valley that this widespread spatial distribution of population centersand the explosive postwar population growth were both most apparent, and the proposedregional civic centers were simultaneously an attempt to recognize the reality of the new Valleycommunities, and to provide a solid foundation for their future growth and administration withinthe umbrella of the Los Angeles municipal structure. The bond issue originally proposed to fund

the construction of these civic centers was defeated in 1947.26

However, in some cases, librarybuilding programs were seen as an opportunity to contribute to the piecemeal development of thecivic centers. For example, a 1951 LA Times article indicated that the $75,000 structure [SunlandTujunga branch] will become the second building in the proposed civic center for the SunlandTujunga area of the city. 27 Similarly, in Van Nuys, [g]reat community interest in the library andin the development of the Van Nuys Civic Center merged into the idea for a new library building inthe Civic Center.28 Construction on the Van Nuys Civic Center began in 1962, and included theCounty Administrative building, the County Health Department, the Van Nuys PoliceAdministrative building, the County Court building with its branch of the county law library, theVan Nuys City Hall, the Federal Building and branch Post Office, and combined City/StateBuilding. 29 When it opened on May 11, 1964, as part of the Van Nuys Civic Center, the Van Nuys

23 Pitt, Leonard. Los Angeles A to Z: an Encyclopedia of the City and County. University of California Press, 1997. P. 29024 Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In The


2007, p. 62825 Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. 188.26 City Planning Commission Report, Accomplishments 1947. Los Angeles, CA27 Sunland Library History. LA Times, Oct. 4, 1951.28 Los Angeles Public Library System. LAPL website: LAPL website Van Nuys Branch history29 Los Angeles Public Library System. Grand Reopening Celebration of the Van Nuys Branch. Oct 4, 1996. Invitation/ephemera.


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Branch Library was the fifteenth and final library project in the San Fernando Valley to becompleted under the 1957 bond issue. 30

The importance of the postwar branch libraries as physical expressions of municipal efforts tostimulate positive community development and neighborhood identityformationto stimulate asense of place, in the language of historian Dolores Haydenis perhaps made even moresignificant because the library construction funded by the 1957 bond issue was, according to somehistorians, the last such attempt to nurture suburban community in positive and constructiveways in regions like the San Fernando Valleyat least for a few decades. As Mike Davis explains it,

the history of homeowner activism in Southern California divides into twoepochs[in] roughly the forty years between 1920 and 1960 homeownersassociations were overwhelmingly concerned with the establishmentof what RobertFishman has called bourgeois utopia.31

However, by the mid1960s, [t]his functionalist approach to neighborhoodbuilding wasabandoned. Noting that true power in southern California rests with affluent homeowners enmasse, and that these homeowners, fearing for their own property values, had combined to createa powerful slowgrowth movement to combat further suburban sprawl, Davis explains that[a]fter 1965 the structural context of homeowner interests [had] dramatically changed.32Though boosterish attitudes toward continued development had increased property values up to apoint, excessive development and infill construction in the same region (and all the resultanttraffic) was now beginning to affect values negatively. Neighborhoods and homeowners, nowdefending their turf instead of promoting it, became solely focused on exclusionary (and highlyracialized) visions of community identity. Instead of construction of physical assets to theneighborhood to catalyze a sense of placeidentity, Davis says, there was instead an emphasis onreinforcing white residents perception of local control.33

The branch libraries built in the San Fernando Valley communities, integrated with the branchCivic Center plans and funded with the 1957 bond issue, therefore, can be seen as the lastpoignant physical manifestations of the same original wave of an optimistic, progrowth and procommunity spirit that fueled the waves of suburban development in the first place.

Online at http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/12/521853.pdf30 Los Angeles Public Library System. LAPL website: LAPL website Van Nuys Branch history31 Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. Davis, Mike. City of Quartz:

Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. 17032 Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. 17033 Davis, Mike. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books, 1992, p. 188


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Los Angeles, CA

County and State



CONTEXT #2: MUNICIPAL ARCHITECTURE, LIBRARIES, & POSTWAR MODERNISM (MID

CENTURY MODERNISM) (CRITERION C)

Municipal architecture is an embodiment of the civic ideals of a community, and it expresses inconcrete form the respect or sense of importance accorded to civil institutions. In the case of theLos Angeles branch libraries, the architecture of the buildings demonstrates the high level ofimportance accorded to literary culture and to the library as a community institution throughoutLos Angeles history.

The early branch libraries of the LAPL were built in a variety of period revival styles, such asItalian Renaissance (including the 1913 Vermont Square Branch and the 1916 Cahuenga Branch),Classical Revival (Lincoln Heights Branch, 1916), or Italian Romanesque (University Branch,1923). A number of the branch libraries prior to 1930 were based upon various Mediterraneanstyles representative of Southern California in the early twentieth century, including several inSpanish Colonial Revival styles.34

Although these buildings covered a broad range stylistically, they shared in common severalfeatures. In keeping with the ennobling mission of the LAPL, and symbolizing the respect given tothese edifices of education and literary culture, many were designed by prominent commercial

and/or institutional architects of the time.35

In addition, as institutions that were intimately tiedto the city and locale, the emphasis on locallyappropriate styles was also important. Librarieswere institutions to which our citizenship should be able to point with special pride, in thewords of a 1911 LAPL Annual Report, and the structures should reflect this. 36 Coupled with thissense that the structures were monuments of civic pride was the idea that they should provideuplifting and ennobling environments, in concordance with their educational missions. Many weretherefore located in parks or surrounded by maintained landscaping.37 The zenith of thisconception of library design was embodied in the 1926 Central Library, which was set amidst 3.3acres of cypresslined stairways and tiled lily ponds with sweeping lawns that lentthemselves to use as outdoor reading rooms and a highly decorated interior.38

34National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,CA, National Register #64000066, Section 7

35Ibid.36 Quoted in Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In


Society, 2007, p. 62237National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination , Los Angeles, Los Angeles County,

CA, National Register #64000066, Section 738 Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In The



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At the same time, the libraries were not memorials, pointing only at the past; rather, they werehighly functional, even technologically advanced structures, that in most cases (referring to theproperties constructed between 1913 and 1926) were designed with a capacity [for] 20,000volumes and with work rooms, supply rooms and club rooms rather than auditoriums. 39 Thearchitecture of libraries in Los Angeles in this period reflected, to some extent, both this sense ofprogressive technological functionalism as well as the sense of romantic and idyllic historicityconnoted by the various revival styles employed. The styles of the past (in the form of classicaldetails or revival architecture), therefore, were mined for the referential and associative meaningsto convey ideas such as permanence, civic duty, nobility of purpose, and authority. Thisconcurrence of the progressiveness of the modern with the solidity of the past was also well

expressed in the Central Library, which was capped with a 188foot square tower capped with amosaic pyramid, blending the Hispanic [Revival style] with the modernity of the Los Angeles CityHall.40

Together, these elements combined to form an authentically local style of architecture. Asrecognized in the 1987 listing of the twentytwo remaining branch libraries from the 19131930period that retained historical integrity, these branch libraries are significant under NationalRegister criterion C for this very reason: their embodiment of distinctive architectural stylescharacteristic of southern California and of Los Angeles in the early 20th century.

In the years after 1930, the Great Depression contributed to a growth in circulation for home

reading (likely due to the increased reading time provided by unemployment), and the libraryspatrons went up between 1930 and 1940 by 33%, or approximately one hundred thousand.41However, economic hardship limited the possibility of new building programs during theDepression, as did the focus on wartime industries did during WWII. Circulation continued toincrease; the library lent 6,309,923 books in 1945, and 9,254,546 in 1955.42 It was only after theDepression and after WWII that the library could begin to institute new building programs torespond to growth in usage and to the growth of the City of Los Angeles.

The most significant building program during this period was funded by the 1957 bond issue,which paid for the construction or renovation of fifteen branch libraries in the San FernandoValley, as well as various other library improvement projects. By the time that this buildingprogram was instituted, the predominant architectural styles in Los Angeles had changedsignificantly from the various Mediterranean revival styles that had been employed in the first

2007, p. 62339 Ibid, p. 62240 Ibid, p. 62341 Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs Department. In The


2007, p. 62542 Ibid, p. 629


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State



decades of the century. However, just as with the 19131930 building programs, the LAPLcontinued to focus on significant architects and designers who could create architecturallysignificant structures that would be a source of local civic pride, and that would reflect the spirit ofLos Angeles. This pride can be observed in contemporary newspaper articles that celebrated thearchitects chosen to design individual branchesGraham Latta, for example, in the case of thePanorama City Branchand in many cases noted details of cost and construction, such as the$186,575 Canoga Park branch. 434445

In the late 1950s, when the construction program funded by the 1957 bond issue began, thearchitectural style that best expressed the regional character of Los Angeles, along with a

progressive civic pride, was MidCentury Modernism. Early Modernists such as Richard Neutraand Rudolph Schindler, forwardthinking architects in the postwar years, had developed aModernist tradition indigenous to Los Angeles and of national and international repute. Theirwork laid the foundation for the development of MidCentury Modernism, as their work andtechniques played a significant role in the careers of Second Generation Modernists such asGregory Ain and Harwell Hamilton Harris and seminal Case Study Program (19451966)architects such as Rafael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Pierre Koenig, and many, many others.

MidCentury Modernism found its roots in the International Style and matured into a regionalstyle which manifest itself in nearly every property type, and was particularly appropriate inlargescale, openplan commercial and institutional architecture such as office buildings or

showrooms.46

The style is characterized by simple, geometric volumes; horizontal massing; directexpression of structural systems; unornamented wall surfaces; flushmounted windows, oftenfloortoceiling; and, in some cases, experimental or expressionistic roof forms, such as butterfly,hyperbolic paraboloid, folded plate or barrel vault. This emphasis on sculptural form andgeometric volume proved suitable for creating the wide, welllighted spaces favored for openplancontemporary libraries.

43 Panorama City library and 28 other city library projects Los Angeles Times, Mar 30, 1958, pg. F1844 $186,575 Branch Library Slated for Canoga Park Los Angeles Times, Mar 16, 1958, pg. F1445 For growth...knowledge Los Angeles Times, Sep 4, 1957, pg. D2146 Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources. Survey LA Historic Context Statement: MidCentury Modernism.


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United States Department of the Interior PutHereNational Park Service


Section number F Page 14

Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

F. Associated Property Types

(Provide description, significance, and registration requirements.)

Property Type Name:

PostWar Branch Libraries of the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) (19451964)

Property Type Description:

The majority of the postwar branch libraries constructed during the period of significancediscussed in this amendment were built after the 1957 Library Bond issue, although someconstruction, most notably the 1952 SunlandTujunga branch, were constructed earlier in thedecade. In general, they are in the range of 4,0006,000 square feet, and were constructed to servenewly developed communities in the San Fernando Valley or similar postwar suburb areas.Branch libraries from this time period were generally onestory structures with an extended roof

height to expand the sense of openness in the interior space, and in some cases replaced older,smaller libraries, doubling or tripling the size of the previous building on the site to accommodatethe burgeoning populations.

Like their 19131930 predecessors, the Los Angeles Public Library branches built in the twodecades after World War II were designed by a number of different commercial and professionalarchitects, who constructed the buildings using a wide range of materials and of sites. However,despite these differences, these postwar libraries generally share in various ways in thearchitectural style of MidCentury Modernism. The style is characterized by an emphasis onsculptural form and geometric volume, as well as an engineers delight in the novel use ofmodern materials in historically unthinkable ways: floortoceiling windows hanging in curtain

walls, or reinforced concrete roofs that that become rigid, frozen celebrations of plasticity. Thisemphasis on sculptural form and geometric volume proved suitable for creating the wide, welllighted spaces that are quite appropriate for libraries, and for public buildings in general.

At heart, however, the defining element of this property type is a functional role: Branch librariesare buildings that, during their period of significance, served their communities as libraries,providing educational & entertainment resources and a public space to a community of peoplewho would enter and leave hundreds of times every today. Serving this function well involved thebranch libraries quite naturally as community anchors as well; as recent scholars have noted,libraries can play often unperceived roles as community anchors, and this is especially true in


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

the areas, such as many postwar suburban developments, where there is little planned publicspace or forum for community interaction.47 This role as a community anchor involves bothintangible associative relationships but also spatial relationships that can often continue to bemeaningfully preserved whether the property continues to function as a library or not.

Unfortunately, however, there are actually very few extant properties from this time period thatboth fit this description and also retain the integrity needed for registrationand perhapscurrently only one, the former Canoga Park Branch Library. Because the communities served bythe postwar libraries have grown so rapidly in Los Angeles, and because the LAPL has been so

effective in growing with them over timeand because the Los Angeles citizenry has been willingto continue making major capitol investments in the LAPL approximately every three decades, inthe form of library bond issuesthe vast majority of branch libraries that are not protected bylocal or federal designation have either been destroyed or have lost their historic integritythrough significant renovation prior to achieving the fiftyyear National Register criterion ofeligibility.

Property Type Significance:

Because Postwar Branch Libraries are closely associated with community development and suburban

growth in Los Angeles, and because of their connection to urban planning ideals and practices throughtheir connection to the planned regional Civic Centers, they are eligible under Criterion A. Propertieseligible under Criterion A will be considered under the context #1 presented in this MPS, CommunityDevelopment and Planning, 19301964. Because many of the postwar LAPL Branch Libraries also serveas notable examples of important regional architecture, many are also potentially eligible under Criterion C,within historical Context #2: Municipal Architecture, Libraries, & Postwar Modernism (MidCenturyModernism).

Property Type Registration Requirements:

In order to be eligible to the National Register of Historic Places, the property must have beenconstructed during the period of significance, 19451964, and it must have been constructed forthe purpose of functioning as a Branch Library under the administration of the Los Angeles PublicLibrary system (LAPL). The property must retain a high degree of integrity of design and materials

47 Manjarrez, C. Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development. Urban Institute, 2007


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

from its original construction date or from the period of significance. If the property is no longerfunctioning as a library, it must still retain a high degree of integrity of materials, design, setting,and association from its functional period as a branch library. Note: the LAPL has both BranchLibraries and Regional Branch Libraries within the LAPL system, as well as the Central Library;both Branch Libraries and Regional Branch Libraries are eligible for registration within thisMPD.

Eligible properties are most likely to be found in the San Fernando Valley, were 15 capitalconstruction projects were authorized under the 1957 bond issue program. (28 projects wereauthorized under this 1957 Bond issue; 15 were specifically designated for the San FernandoValley.)

In addition, eligible properties must also maintain a strong sense of identity with the communitiesin which they are located, through integrity of location, setting, association, and feeling as well asintegrity of design, workmanship, and materials. This is likely to be maintained through theirfunction as community libraries if the property continues to function according to its originalpurpose. However, if the property no longer functions as an active library within the LAPL system(as is the case, for example, with the Canoga Park Branch Library building on OwensmouthAvenue), it must maintain a strong degree of both the feeling and the spatial relationships thatexisted when it did function as a functional public building within the community. This historicalrelationship with the community is strengthened if the branch library was originally constructedas part of a regional civic center or was intended to be part of a regional civic center. The integrityof spatial relationships can potentially be a way of analyzing these difficult integrityconsiderations. For example, does the spatial layout of the community still retain the sameapproximate density of construction that it had when the Library was constructed? Areneighboring buildings the same structures that existed during the librarys period of significance?If they are not, or if there has been significant infill construction since the period of significance, isthe approximate scale of construction similar to that which existed during the period ofsignificance? Integrity of setting and location, in the context of these spatial relationships, impliesthat the building must maintain the sense of public accessibility that helped branch librariesbecome icons and markers of community identity during the midcentury development ofresidential communities in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere in Los Angeles.

In terms of architectural style, it is expected that all eligible branch libraries are constructed in thestyle of MidCentury Modernism, characterized by simple, geometric volumes; horizontal massing;direct expression of structural systems; unornamented wall surfaces; flushmounted windows,and experimental or expressionistic roof forms, such as butterfly, hyperbolic paraboloid, foldedplate or barrel vault.


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

Possible eligible properties include the following branches. These properties have not yet beenfully researched for integrity considerations.

Canoga Park Branch Library, 7260 N. Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park, CA. (Constructed in1959, under the 1957 bond issue program)

Panorama City Branch Library, 14345 Roscoe Boulevard, Panorama City, CA 91402(Constructed between 1958 and 1960, under the 1957 bond issue program)

Van Nuys Branch Library, 6250 Sylmar Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91401. (Constructed in 1964,and thus not eligible due to the 50year eligibility requirement as of 2010. However, it ishoped that this MPD will continue to be extended in the future to integrate newerproperties such as this. This library was opened in 1964 as the 15th and final project in theSan Fernando Valley under terms of the 1957 bond issue program.


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Section number G Page 18

Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

G. Geographical Data

Geographically, the potential survey area for this multiple property submission covers the entireregion served by the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) system, an area that is coterminous withthe corporate boundaries of the City of Los Angeles. However, because of the specificity of theproperty type to which this MPS applies, and because they were all constructed by the sameinstitution, there are a very finite number of properties actually within the scope of this survey,

and their locations are known.48

These properties within the scope of the survey, however, many of which are currently ineligiblesolely or primarily because of the National Register fiftyyear criterion for eligibility, should berevisited consistently to determine their potential eligibility in the future. Future amendments tothis MPD should continue to consider any additional areas annexed by the City of Los Angeles, asthese will then also be within the scope of the LAPL.

48 Specifically, there are only a little more than 80 total properties extant today within the City of Los Angeles that were constructed

as branch and regional library buildings by the LAPL, and 22 of these are already listed in the National Register under the Los

Angeles Branch Library Thematic Nomination, (19131930). These properties include both active libraries as well as some

properties, such as the former Canoga Park Library, that were built as libraries but have since undergone adaptive reuse after

their library branch functions were installed in newer, larger buildings.


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Section number I Page 19

Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods

(Discuss the methods used in developing the multiple property listing.)

The survey and evaluation process for this amended MPS for the Los Angeles Public Librarysystem, focusing on the postwar capitol construction projects funded through the 1957 bondissue and expressed particularly in the postwar modernist branch library buildings that wereconstructed in rapidly growing postwar neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley, builds very

closely on the existing documentation listed in the National Register. This existing documentationis the National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System ThematicNomination, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA, National Register #64000066, which was firstprepared in 1978, then revised in 1984 and 1985 by Robert Chattel, and then received by the NPSin 1985 and entered into the Register on May 9, 1987.

Building from the twin areas of significance noted in that 1987 Thematic Nomination for librariesconstructed from 19131930that is, their roles as cultural and community signifiers and theirpotential status as architecturally significant structures that serve as the survey and evaluationprocess for the current amended LAPL MPS used the same lens to analyze newer LAPLpropertiesat least, those few remaining LAPL properties with enough historic integrity to be

potentially eligible. Generally speaking, because of the National Register fiftyyear criterion foreligibility, the properties within the scope of the survey for this MPS were those Branch Librariesconstructed with the 1957 bond issue funds, the majority of which were constructed in the morerecentlyannexed areas and more recentlydeveloped communities of the San Fernando Valley(that is, the areas had been annexed in many cases in the first decades of the twentieth century,and the communities had flourished especially in the years just after WWII). This scope of analysisled to the particular resources used to analyze historic contexts for this survey; specifically,newspaper articles, literature and histories provided by the LAPL itself, site visits to determine therelationship between extant structures and their environments and surrounding communities(and to determine integrity). These very public information resources are appropriate because thefunctional role and significance of the library buildings in terms of their relationship to

communities and to culture is inherently related to how they are publicly perceived.

In the case of the Canoga Park Branch Library Building, the HistoricalCultural MonumentApplication file, held by the Cultural Heritage Commission of Los Angeles, also provided particularinsight into the discourse that went on in the city about the significance of the building.


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

I. Major Bibliographical References

(List major written works and primary location of additional documentation: State HistoricPreservation Office, other State agency, Federal agency, local government, university, or other,

specifying repository.)

Lothrop, Gloria Ricci. 2007. The Development of the Los Angeles Public Library and Cultural Affairs

Department. In The Development of Los Angeles City Government, an Institutional History, 18502000 (Volume

2). Los Angeles City Historical Society, 2007 pg 613651

Rudd, H., Ed. The Development of Los Angeles City Government: An Institutional History, 18502000 . City of Los

Angeles Historical Society, 2007

City Planning Commission. Accomplishments, City Planning Commission Report, 1947. Los Angeles, CA.

Pitt, Leonard. Los Angeles A to Z: an Encyclopedia of the City and County. University of California Press, 1997

Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, Survey LA Historic Context Statement: MidCentury Modernism.

National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic Nomination, 19131930,

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA, National Register #64000066.

Los Angeles Public Library System: A Brief Sunland Tujunga Branch Library History; Robertson

Branch Library History; Van Nuys Branch history

Manjarrez, C. Making Cities Stronger: Public Library Contributions to Local Economic Development. Urban

Institute, 2007

NPS. National Register Bulletin: Historic Residential Suburbs: Guidelines For Evaluation And Documentation.

Los Angeles Times:

o Panorama City library and 28 other city library projects Los Angeles Times, Mar 30, 1958; pg. F18

o Sunland Library History. LA Times, Oct. 4, 1951.

o $186,575 Branch Library Slated for Canoga Park Los Angeles Times, Mar 16, 1958, pg. F14

o For growth...knowledge Los Angeles Times, Sep 4, 1957, pg. D21

o BookHungry Valley Towns Await Library Los Angeles Times, Aug 12, 1956, pg. G1

Bibliographic sources used in the National Register of Historic Places, Los Angeles Branch Library System Thematic

Nomination (National Register #64000066), 1987:


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Name of Property

Los Angeles, CA

County and State

Annual Report, 1935, Los Angeles Public Library

Los Angeles Times; May 31, 1914, Pt. V, Pg. 1; June 13, 1915, Pt. VI, Pg. 4; November 26, 1922, Pt. V, Pg. 6;

January 14, 1923, Pt. V, Pg. 1; February 25, 1923, Pt. V, Pg. 1; November 7, 1926, Pt. V, Pg. 6;

Los Angeles Public Library Branches, 1928, Los Angeles Public Library

California Historic Resources Inventory, 1976, Office of Historic Preservation, Sacramento, CA., Assessment

Records, Los Angeles County Recorder

Documents

Los Angeles Branch Libraries MPD Update - MPD Cover