Los Angeles Public Library Opens in the Metropolitan Building

Charging, receiving and registration desk at the Los Angeles Public Library in the Metropolitan Building, [n.d], Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

On June 1, 1914 the Los Angeles Public Library opened in the Metropolitan Building at 5th and Broadway. Accessible only by an elevator, the library rented the seventh, eighth and ninth floors. In addition to subject departments the library featured a music room and spaces to display art. 

Art display at the Los Angeles Public Library in the Metropolitan Building, [1926], 

Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

Music room at the Los Angeles Public Library in the Metropolitan Building, [1926], 

Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

Crowd at the Los Angeles Public Library in the Metropolitan Building, [1926], 

Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

By the early 1920s the location was overcrowded and City Librarian Everett R. Perry enlisted library worker Monica Shannon (graduate of the library's 1915 Training Class) to head their Publicity Department and spearhead a campaign for a new library building. The campaign included advertisements on the side of streetcars and in movie theaters, display windows in downtown department stores, informative talks by library staff and prominent Angelenos, as well as branch-level publicity in the form of bookmarks slipped into checked out items. The campaign was a success and in 1926 the library moved out of the Metropolitan Building and into the beautiful Central Library. Visit https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/monica-shannon-advocate-libraries-leprechauns-and-luckless to learn more about Ms. Shannon and the library's campaigns to free itself from rented spaces.