Fremont and University

As of December 29, 2016,  I've been to all 26 Seattle Public Library branches to fulfill my 2016 Creative New Year's Resolution. You'll see photos of them all below, and I am adding details to the final posts. 

I plan to continue my library visits with stops at some of the nearly 50 locations of the King County Library System, which marks its 75th anniversary in 2017. See you at the library!


Fremont

Looking through a cut-out
in a kid-size chair
at the Fremont branch.

I completed my tour of the 26 Seattle Public Library branches in Fremont. This felt fitting because I began this project as a way to see my city, and Fremont is where I go when I most want to feel like a tourist in my own backyard. From the Troll to the Center of the Universe to the Solstice Parade, Fremont remains the epicenter of Northwest whimsy — and this library feels like the neighborhood's clubhouse, with its heavy timbers and low-slung Mission-style reading chairs.

City of cranes, and of libraries

Library service in Fremont dates to the 1890s, but this branch finally opened in 1921. Daniel R. Huntington was the architect and, according to this HistoryLink article, he called its style Italian Farmhouse.

I was especially taken by the diptych of paintings on the east wall. Meant to echo WPA-style murals, the paintings show what Fremont looked like when the Lake Washington Ship Canal was created to connect our region’s inland waters to the Salish Sea. There’s no mention of the paintings on the SPL website, so I asked about them. Librarian Darcy Stone hauled out a binder with some details on the paintings, including the fact they’d almost vanished during the branch’s 2005 renovations, but that a community “hue and cry” helped save them.

I told Darcy about my mission to visit every branch, and how I'd saved Fremont for last. That’s when she handed me a rare copy of the passport that SPL created in 2008 (five years before I moved here!) to commemorate the completion of work funded by the 1998 “Libraries for All” measure. She stamped the Fremont page for me.

So now I guess I'll start over!



University


When the land for the University branch was chosen, some people complained that it wasn't exactly central to the U District. As Alyssa Burrows wrote in a 2002 HistoryLink article, “the library was so remote that a librarian asked the city to post a direction sign to help people find it.”

It’s still true that the U District’s commercial area along University Way (“the Ave”) is several blocks away and campus is about a 20-minute walk. But the Seattle Public Library’s University branch is well-situated to serve the fast-changing area on the west side of the U District.

The first thing I noticed in this branch was the skylight above the circulation desk, bringing light into the building on a gray Seattle day. A display of seasonal books added warmth, too, on topics ranging from soup recipes to home decor to winter birding.

This branch was funded by Andrew Carnegie. It opened in 1910 and it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s also one of three older branches — Fremont (below) and Queen Anne are the others — that have received 21st century renovations designed by what’s now known as Hoshide Wanzer Architects.

Blue and green exterior accents are a handsome touch 
at the University Branch. 

Southwest, South Park

Southwest

In 1956, Seattle voters approved bond money to replace the then-50-year-old Central Library, earmarking any leftover funds to build more branches. The Southwest branch was the first to be built with that pool of money, and it opened in 1961 to replace a library "station" near the Fauntleroy ferry. (As the library website explains, stations had fewer books than branches and were open fewer hours, but they helped the city meet surging demand during and after World War II.) Two years after it opened, it was the third-busiest branch in the system.

By the 21st century, the branch needed a new, more prominent look along busy 35th Avenue S.W. A 2005-2007 renovation doubled available space and added a vibrant exterior, including delightful details that reward closer inspection, too. Especially noteworthy is "Anthology," a series of five sculpted pairs of bronze hands by British Columbia artist Katherine Kerr that are now featured on a coloring sheet from the library. A relief sculpture, "Mother Reading With Child" by Charles W. Smith, was preserved from the previous building.



South Park

Another successful bond election, the 1998 "Libraries for All" campaign, finally brought a branch to the South Park neighborhood in 2006. This is a neighborhood of contrasts and kids, and the branch's creative, colorful design reflects this, from carpeting that recalls book spines and reading alcoves for teens to a pegboard-like ceiling with 90,000 holes to absorb noise. Outdoors, a pattern in the concrete path is meant to evoke the nearby Duwamish River and an art installation called "South Park Lights" are inspired by the neighborhood's heritage.

West Seattle, High Point, Delridge