Corona del Mar library's first location: a storefront on the corner of Goldenrod and Pacific Coast Highway. The calendar on the wall dates this picture to October 1948.
A sign from the 1950's on the corner of Avocado Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway welcomes visitors and residents to "Beautiful Corona del Mar, 'Crown of the Sea,' Finest in shops, restaurants and vacationing."
In 1953, while it waited for space in a renovated Ensign School, the Corona del Mar library moved to the Custodian's House of the Corona del Mar Elementary School.
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Pictured above are: the exterior of the new library, invited speakers and guests at the opening, and staff members in the library's main reading room.
A few years after its completion, "the little building was bulging with books."(1) In 1968 the City of Newport Beach added 2,000 square feet to the library.
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Pictured above are: workers tearing down a wall for the addition, the exterior of the addition, and the main entrance of the library with its new addition.
The library as it looked just before its refurbishment in July of 2009.
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The Corona del Mar as it looks today. This smallest branch of the Newport Beach Public Library has become an important part of the community. A brighter, more spacious interior, along with more computing equipment and seating spaces, ensures this neighborhood favorite will welcome visitors for many years to come.
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(1) Sheely, Dorothea Wilson. Brief history of the Newport Beach Library System (1976). In Stevenson, Shirley E., Dorothea Wilson Sheely: thirty years as City Librarian of Newport Beach (Appendix I) (1987).Fullerton, CA: California State University.
Black and white photos used with permission of the Sherman Library.
