Carnegie Library celebrates centennial
CALEXICO — A sizable crowd gathered in front of the Carnegie Library on Tuesday to celebrate the building’s 100 year anniversary and honor those responsible for its creation and restoration.
State Librarian Greg Lucas served as the event’s keynote speaker and emphasized how libraries have helped shape and enhance a community’s civic life for the past 100 years.
He also assured those gathered that modern technology and mobile devices aren’t likely to displace the community’s reliance on public libraries and the services they offer.
“Libraries are one of the best things that human beings have ever come up with in the history of human civilization,” Lucas said. “They bring people together, not divide them.”
He also praised the efforts of community members who helped stave off the library’s proposed demolition in 1993 after it had fallen into neglect following the opening of the city’s Camarena Memorial Library in 1986.
Those past local efforts, Lucas said, stood in contrast to a Northern California community’s lack of a similar response when its Carnegie library faced certain demolition.
“That community was unable to see the value of an investment in bringing that library back to life like this community saw the value in bringing this library back to life,” he said.
Tuesday’s centennial celebration was also part history lesson, where multiple women were honored for their efforts getting an early iteration of the library established in 1908 and the existing building subsequently restored in 2008.
Among those early library supporters and innovators were members of the Calexico Women’s Improvement Club, who helped transform a former speakeasy at the corner of Imperial Avenue and Second Street into a reading room in 1909.
Calexico native and retired San Diego Miramar College professor Mike Charles spoke about his great aunt Bessie Wofford and grandmother Floride Charles, who were employed as the newfound library’s second and third librarians, respectively.
Charles’ connection to the city’s public library system is further enhanced by the fact the Encinas Avenue property where the Camarena Memorial Library now sits once belonged to his father, who as a child had lived in a room attached to the Women’s Improvement Club’s original reading room.
“The Wofford and Charles families will always share the sacred grounds of Calexico’s three libraries,” Charles said.
Tuesday’s event equally praised the late industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, whose foundation helped fund the establishment of 2,509 libraries across the globe between 1883 and 1929.
During his remarks, Mayor Lewis Pacheco summarized Carnegie’s philanthropic philosophy, as highlighted in an 1880 article Carnegie published in the North American Review entitled “Wealth.”
“The rich have a moral obligation to distribute their money in ways to promote the welfare and the happiness of the common man,” Pacheco said.
Admiration for Carnegie on Tuesday was matched by praise for former Calexico High School librarian Margarita de Necochea, who starting in 1993 spearheaded efforts to restore the neglected Carnegie Library.
Those efforts resulted in more than $1 million in local funds and a $712,000 grant from the California Cultural and Historical Foundation going toward the library’s preservation and eventual re-opening as the Carnegie Technology Center in 2008.
“Had a handful of Calexico women not stepped forward, this building would not be located (here),” Charles said. “Hopefully the history lesson about the bold leadership of the Carnegie women will not be forgotten in Calexico’s rich history.”
To this day, the Calexico Women’s Improvement Club continues to act as benefactors for the city, helping raise funds for student scholarships, shelter for women and foster youth programs, said WIC President Rosalind Guerrero.
“We plan to be here for a very long time supporting our community,” Guerrero said.
During a slight departure from the event’s official program, City Manager David Dale and Councilman David Romero honored Sandra Tauler, director of the city’s Community Services Department, which oversees library services.
They presented Tauler with a plaque recognizing her 28 years with the city and her help implementing the successful programs that have kept the city’s libraries a popular draw.
Representatives of the Valley’s Congressional and statewide lawmakers were also on hand to recognize the historic milestone.
As a result, city officials were presented with a proclamation honoring the library’s centennial that was recently read into Congressional Record as well as official proclamations memorializing the significance of the city’s Carnegie Library.