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.