Library Timeline

1877

Residents of San Francisco hold a meeting at Dashaway Hall, initiated by Andrew S. Hallidie, to advocate the funding and establishment of a free public Library.

Best seller in 1877

The American by Henry James

1878

Governor William Irwin signs the Rogers Act, instituting a property tax to raise Library funds and creating a board of Library trustees.

Best seller in 1878:

The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green

1879

First San Francisco Public Library opens on the second floor of Pacific Hall on Bush Street (between Kearny & Dupont, now Grant Avenue).

First City Librarian, Albert Hart, is hired.

Best seller in 1879:

Progress and Poverty by Henry George

1888

Library moves to the Larkin Street wing of City Hall, in the new Civic Center.

Best seller in 1888:

Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

1888-89

First three branches are opened, in the Mission, in North Beach, and on Potrero Hill.

1889

The Library is nominated for federal depository status by U.S. Senator George Hearst and continues as a federal depository to the present day.

Best seller in 1889:

Stories by Guy de Maupassant

1892

Richmond Branch opened.

Best seller in 1892:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

1893

Library relocates to the third floor of City Hall's McAllister Street wing.

Best seller in 1893:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

1895

Park Branch opened.

Best seller in 1895:

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

1898

Presidio Branch opened.

Best seller in 1898:

Black Rock by Ralph Connor

1901

Andrew J. Carnegie The foundation established by Andrew J. Carnegie gives $750,000 to the city to help fund a new main Library and several branches. See "History of Carnegie Libraries" by Tim Kelley (PDF).

The Library Commission is formed.

View 1901 Borrowers' Handbook

Best seller in 1901:

Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon

1902

Eureka Valley Branch opened as McCreery Branch. Rebuilt as Eureka Valley in 1962.

Ocean View Branch opened.

1903

San Francisco voters pass a bond issue to supplement the Carnegie bequest.

Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, leader of the City Beautiful movement, begins to design a master plan for San Francisco, including a Civic Center with a new Library building.

Best sellers in 1903

Fiction

Lady Rose's Daughter, Mary Augusta Ward

Gordon Keith, Thomas Nelson Page

The Pit, Frank Norris

Lovey Mary, Alice Hegan Rice

The Virginian, Owen Wister

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Alice Hegan Rice

The Mettle of the Pasture, James Lane Allen

Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His Son, George Horace Lorimer

The One Woman, Thomas Dixon Jr.

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, John Fox Jr.

1906

Daniel Burnham presents his final plan for the city's redesign. But shortly afterward the earthquake and fire destroy much of the city including the Library collection housed in City Hall. Of the Library's 166,344 volumes an estimated 40,000 were destroyed. Temporary quarters were established on Hayes Street near Van Ness. Two of the six branches were destroyed.

Best sellers in 1906:

Fiction

1. Coniston, Winston Churchill

2. Lady Baltimore, Owen Wister

3. The Fighting Chance, Robert W. Chambers

4. The House of a Thousand Candles, Meredith Nicholson

5. Jane Cable, George Barr McCutcheon

6. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

7. The Awakening of Helena Ritchie, Margaret Deland

8. The Spoilers, Rex Beach

9. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

10. The Wheel of Life, Ellen Glasgow

1907

The Library moves to a temporary location between Van Ness & Franklin, Fell & Hayes.

1908

The city begins to raise funds and consider plans for a new Civic Center.

1914

The temporary Main Library reaches capacity.

George Kelham Architect George W. Kelham's design for a new Main Library - the first building to be constructed specifically for the Library - is chosen for a Civic Center location, the block bound by Larkin, McAllister, Hyde, and Fulton streets.

Carnegie Foundation funds are earmarked for the building of branch libraries in the Richmond, the Mission, the Sunset, Noe Valley, and Golden Gate Valley.

1915

Ground is broken for the Main Library.

Best sellers in 1915:

Fiction

1. The Turmoil, Booth Tarkington

2. A Far Country, Winston Churchill

3. Michael O'Halloran, Gene Stratton Porter

4. Pollyanna Grows Up, Eleanor H. Porter

5. K, Mary Roberts Rinehart

6. Jaffery, William J. Locke

7. Felix O'Day, F. Hopkinson Smith

8. The Harbor, Ernest Poole

9. The Lone Star Ranger, Zane Grey

10. Angela's Business, Henry Sydnor Harrison

1916

Noe Valley Branch opened.

The cornerstone for the Main Library is laid - ten years after the devastating earthquake of 1906.

Silver trowel by Shreves
Presented to the Board of Public Library Trustees by the McGilvray-Raymond Granite Co.
April 15, 1916
On the occasion of laying the cornerstone
Public Library, Civic Center
by His Honor Mayor James Rolph, Jr.

1917

The Main Library is dedicated and opens to the public. Materials are moved by horse and wagon to the new Beaux Arts building.

Best sellers in 1917

Fiction

1. Mr. Britling Sees It Through, H. G. Wells

2. The Light in the Clearing, Irving Bacheller

3. The Red Planet, William J. Locke

General - Nonfiction

1. Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, Robert W. Service

2. The Plattsburg Manual, O. O. Ellis and E. B. Garey

3. Raymond, Sir Oliver Lodge

WAR - BOOKS

1. The First Hundred Thousand, Ian Hay

2. My Home in the Field of Honor, Frances W. Huard

3. A Student in Arms, Donald Hankey

1918

Sunset Branch and Golden Gate Valley Branch opened.

1920

The Main Library begins to acquire rare books and the works of San Francisco fine printers and binders: a collection that in 1927 is named for Max J. Kuhl and is currently housed in The Book Arts and Special Collections Center.

Bernal Branch opened as Library deposit station. Became full branch in 1936.

1921

Carnegie Foundation funds are used to finance branches in North Beach and on Sacramento Street. See "History of Carnegie Libraries" by Tim Kelley (PDF).

North Beach Branch renamed Chinatown Branch.

1925

Excelsior and Ingleside branches open.

1927

Glen Park and Bayview branches open.

1928

Portola Branch opened.

1929

Business Library (a department of the Main) opens in the Russ Building in the Financial District.

Best sellers in 1929

Fiction

1. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

2. Dodsworth, Sinclair Lewis

3. Dark Hester, Anne Douglas Sedgwick

4. The Bishop Murder Case, S. S. Van Dine

5. Roper's Row, Warwick Deeping

Nonfiction

1. The Art of Thinking, Ernest Dimnet

2. Henry the Eighth, Francis Hackett

3. The Cradle of the Deep, Joan Lowell

4. Elizabeth and Essex, Lytton Strachey

5. The Specialist, Chic Sale

1932

Gottardo Piazzoni Painting A Mural Piazzoni Murals begin to be installed in the Main Library's Rotunda.

Anza Branch opened.

1934

Visitacion Valley Branch opened.

1936

Parkside and West Portal branches opened.

Best sellers in 1936

Fiction

1. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

2. The Last Puritan, George Santayana

3. Sparkenbroke, Charles Morgan

4. Drums Along the Mohawk, Walter D. Edmonds

5. It Can't Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis

Nonfiction

1. Man the Unknown, Alexis Carrel

2. Wake Up and Live!, Dorothea Brande

3. The Way of a Transgressor, Negley Farson

4. Around the World in Eleven Years, Patience, Richard, and Johnny Abbe

5. North to the Orient, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

1943

Main Library declared filled to capacity.

Best sellers in 1943

Fiction

1. The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas

2. The Valley of Decision, Marcia Davenport

3. So Little Time, John P. Marquand

4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

5. The Human Comedy, William Saroyan

Nonfiction

1. Under Cover, John Roy Carlson

2. One World, Wendell L. Willkie

3. Journey Among Warriors, Eve Curie

4. On Being a Real Person, Harry Emerson Fosdick

5. Guadalcanal Diary, Richard Tregaskis

1947

Nat Schmulowitz Nat Schmulowitz, a local lawyer and former Library Commissioner, donates his collection of humor books and magazines to the Main Library, forming the core of the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit & Humor (SCOWAH) located in The Book Arts and Special Collections Center.

1948

Voters turn down bond issue to fund eighteen branches and an addition to the Main Library.

1949

Citizens concerned about the future of the Library meet to form the first Friends of the San Francisco Library.

1952

Series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle criticizes the Library.

Best sellers in 1952

Fiction

1. The Silver Chalice, Thomas B. Costain

2. The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk

3. East of Eden, John Steinbeck

4. My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier

5. Steamboat Gothic, Frances Parkinson Keyes

Nonfiction

1. The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version

2. A Man Called Peter, Catherine Marshall

3. U.S.A. Confidential, Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer

4. The Sea Around Us, Rachel L. Carson

5. Tallulah, Tallulah Bankhead

1954

Marina Branch opened.

1956

Ortega Branch opened.

1957

Hale Champion's series in the San Francisco Chronicle negatively critiques the Library's operation and services.

1958

Emerson Greenaway, an eminent librarian, delivers a report recommending additional city funding, improvements to the Main Library, and hiring of trained staff.

Merced Branch opened.

Best sellers in 1958

Fiction

1. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

2. Anatomy of a Murder, Robert Traver

3. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

4. Around the World with Auntie Mame, Patrick Dennis

5. From the Terrace, John O'Hara

Nonfiction

1. Kids Say the Darndest Things!, Art Linkletter

2. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Pat Boone

3. Only in America, Harry Golden

4. Masters of Deceit, Edgar Hoover

5. Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Jean Kerr

1959

Mayoral memorandum announcing the formation of the Mayor's Committee of Fifty Mayor George Christopher creates the Committee of Fifty, a group of prominent cultural and business leaders, to build support for the Library.

North Beach Branch opened in current location.

Best sellers in 1959

Fiction

1. Exodus, Leon Uris

2. Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak

3. Hawaii, James Michener

4. Advise and Consent, Allen Drury

5. Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence

Nonfiction

1. 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty, Pat Boone

2. Folk Medicine, D. C. Jarvis

3. For 2¢ Plain, Harry Golden

4. The Status Seekers, Vance Packard

5. Act One, Moss Hart

1960

San Franciscans for a Better Library, a citizen's group, is formed.

1961

Early Friends of the Library logo The Committee of Fifty, San Franciscans for a Better Library, and the San Francisco Library League join forces under a new name - Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Best sellers in 1961

Fiction

1. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone

2. Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

4. Mila 18, Leon Uris

5. The Carpetbaggers, Harold Robbins

Nonfiction

1. The New English Bible: The New Testament

2. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer

3. Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book

4. Casserole Cook Book

5. A Nation of Sheep, William Lederer

1963

Judy Detrick Richard Harrison, local calligrapher and collector of calligraphy, gives his collection to the Library, currently located in The Book Arts and Special Collections Center.

Effie Lee Morris was appointed the first Coordinator of Children's Services.

1964

The Main Library establishes a collection of materials on local history, later named the San Francisco History Room, now called The San Francisco History Center.

The Friends holds its first annual book sale, raising $4,000 to purchase rare materials for the Library.

Best sellers in 1964

Fiction

1. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carré

2. Candy, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg

3. Herzog, Saul Bellow

4. Armageddon, Leon Uris

5. The Man, Irving Wallace

Nonfiction

1. Four Days, American Heritage and United Press International

2. I Need All the Friends I Can Get, Charles M. Schulz

3. Profiles in Courage: Memorial Edition, John F. Kennedy

4. In His Own Write, John Lennon

1965

Woodcut image from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphhili, printed by Aldus Manutius, Venice, 1499 Robert Grabhorn's collection of 1,500 rare books becomes part of the Main Library's Special Collections, located in The Book Arts and Special Collections Center.

1966

Western Addition Branch opened.

Best sellers in 1966

Fiction

1. Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann

2. The Adventurers, Harold Robbins

3. The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Robert Crichton

4. Capable of Honor, Allen Drury

5. The Double Image, Helen MacInnes

Nonfiction

1. How to Avoid Probate, Norman F. Dacey

2. Human Sexual Response, William Howard Masters and Virginia E. Johnston

3. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

4. Games People Play, Eric Berne, M.D.

5. A Thousand Days, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

1967

Bay Area Reference Center (BARC) funded. Main Library designated "third-level" research center for Northern California.

1969

San Francisco librarians form the Librarians' Guild, which soon replaces the Library Staff Association.

Best sellers in 1969

Fiction

1. Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth

2. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

3. The Love Machine, Jacqueline Susann

4. The Inheritors, Harold Robbins

5. The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton

Nonfiction

1. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, William Morris, editor

2. In Someone's Shadow, Rod McKuen

3. The Peter Principle, Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull

4. Between Parent and Teenager, Dr. Haim G. Ginott

1970

City employees picketing in front of City Hall The Librarians' Guild supports the four day city wide strike of public employees.

1972

The Library begins walk-in service for the blind and visually impaired, now called The Library for the Blind and Print Disabled.

Keep Libraries Alive! forms to protest the closing of branches to meet cuts in the city's budget for the Library system.

1973

Dial-A-Story begins. This service, aimed at preschool-age children but used by many, offers stories in English via telephone.

1974

The Library Commission, the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Keep Libraries Alive!, and other citizen groups fight successfully to retain Marshall Square as the site of a new main Library.

California Video Resources Project begins producing and collecting videotapes.

Best sellers in 1974

Fiction

1. Centennial, James A. Michener

2. Watership Down, Richard Adams

3. Jaws, Peter Benchley

4. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John Le Carré

5. Something Happened, Joseph Heller

Nonfiction

1. The Total Woman, Marabel Morgan

2. All the President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

3. Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, Merle Miller

4. More Joy: A Lovemaking Companion to The Joy of Sex, Alex Comfort

1978

The passage of Proposition 13, rolling back property taxes, negatively impacts the city's ability to fund the Library and other public institutions.

Library begins sign language and video services for the Deaf, now called Deaf Services Center.

1980

January: CLSI, the Library’s first automation system, goes online at the Main.

Special Media Services (circulating video collection, media production, and services to Deaf) started in the Communications Center (Presidio Branch). In 1982 moves into the Main Library. (Audio Visual Center and Assistive Technology)

Best sellers in 1980

Fiction

1. The Covenant, James A. Michener

2. The Bourne Identity, Robert Ludlum

3. Rage of Angels, Sidney Sheldon

4. Princess Daisy, Judith Krantz

5. Firestarter, Stephen King

Nonfiction

1. Crisis Investing: Opportunities and Profits in the Coming Great Depression, Douglas R. Casey

2. Cosmos, Carl Sagan

3. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, Milton and Rose Friedman

4. Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins

1982

Report by Lowell Martin recommending consolidation of branches catalyzes public support for the branches.

1983

Project Read, the Library’s literacy program, begins.

1985

Book Buddies was established. Children’s librarians train volunteers to read to children in San Francisco hospitals. As a component of that program, Dial-A-Story lines in Cantonese and Spanish were started.

1986

A task force is created by Mayor Feinstein to complete the design of the Civic Center, including use of Marshall Square for a new Library.

Best sellers in 1986:

Fiction

1. It, Stephen King

2. Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy

3. Whirlwind, James Clavell

4. The Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum

5. Hollywood Husbands, Jackie Collins

Nonfiction

1. Fatherhood, Bill Cosby

2. Fit for Life, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond

3. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, Kitty Kelley

4. The Rotation Diet, Martin Katahn

5. You're Only Old Once, Dr. Seuss

1987

Business Library closed due to budget cuts.

1989

Damage caused by the Loma Prieta Earthquake Loma Prieta Earthquake severely damages the Main Library building and the stacks are permanently closed to the public.

This is the last year that the card catalog is maintained. All cataloguing is now entered into the online database.

1990

Dorothy Starr Sheet music collector Dorothy Starr dies, leaving a collection of 500,000 pieces of published music. The Friends purchase the collection from her estate for the Library.

Best sellers in 1990

Fiction

1. The Plains of Passage, Jean M. Auel

2. Four Past Midnight, Stephen King

3. The Burden of Proof, Scott Turow

4. Memories of Midnight, Sidney Sheldon

5. Message from Nam, Danielle Steel

Nonfiction

1. A Life on the Road, Charles Kuralt

2. The Civil War, Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns

3. The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Heritage: Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother, Jeff Smith

1992

Lesbian/Gay Center collection begins, now called the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center.

Loan of audio Compact Discs Begins.

Ground is broken for the New Main Library on Marshall Square. Hundreds attend the ceremony, including Mayor Frank Jordan. He uses the same silver shovel Mayor "Sunny Jim" Rolph held when ground was broken for City Hall.

The Library excavation uncovers part of the old jail and other rubble from City Hall when it collapsed in the 1906 earthquake. Also found is a wedding band, one of the last remains of the Yerba Buena Cemetery that once held more than 5,000 bodies and was removed in 1870.

1993

Municipal Cable TV Station (CITYWATCH, Channel 54) begins, now called Channel 26, SFGTV. SF Community Television Corp. moves into Main Library.

Automated router (Telephone System) installed, last rotary phone removed from branches.

Best sellers in 1993

Fiction

1. The Bridges of Madison County, Robert James Waller

2. The Client, John Grisham

3. Slow Waltz at Cedar Bend, Robert James Waller

4. Without Remorse, Tom Clancy

5. Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King

Nonfiction

1. See, I Told You So, Rush Limbaugh

2. Private Parts, Howard Stern

3. Seinlanguage, Jerry Seinfeld

4. Embraced by the Light, Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor

5. Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra

1994

The Library establishes Internet access and an early Web site.

Telephone Information Project (TIP) starts.

Community (Automated) Information Projects begin: S.F. African-American History Network, AIDS Information Network, Community Information Project. (San Francisco Community Services Directory.)

Dial-up to SF Catalog begins.

The Children’s Bookmobile begins providing collections and services for children in daycare.

1996

New Main Library opened on April 18.

New Main Library Focus Collections: The new Library houses many focus collections: African American, Gay and Lesbian, International, Chinese, Filipino, Environmental, Teen, and Jobs & Careers.

The first Teen Services Librarian position was created.

Best sellers in 1996

Fiction

1. The Runaway Jury, John Grisham

2. Executive Orders, Tom Clancy

3. Desperation, Stephen King

4. Airframe, Michael Crichton

5. The Regulators, Richard Bachman

Nonfiction

1. Make the Connection, Oprah Winfrey and Bob Greene

2. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, John Gray

3. The Dilbert Principle, Scott Adams

4. Simple Abundance, Sarah Ban Breathnach

5. The Zone, Barry Sears with Bill Lawren

1997

E-mail reference service is available augmenting answers to questions in person, by telephone, fax, and in writing.

1999

Over 25,000 historic photographs are digitized and made accessible on the Library's Web site. (Historic Photo Collection)

2000

Main Library Post Occupancy Evaluation Report (POE)

Voters approve of Prop A, a $106 million bond measure, for improvements to nineteen neighborhood branches and the construction of four new branch buildings.

Best sellers in 2000

Fiction

1. The Brethren, John Grisham

2. The Mark: The Beast Rules the World, Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye

3. The Bear and the Dragon, Tom Clancy

4. The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession, Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye

5. The Last Precinct, Patricia Cornwell

Nonfiction

1. Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson

2. Guinness World Records 2001, Guinness World Books Staff

3. Body for Life, Bill Phillips

4. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom

5. The Beatles Anthology, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr

2001

Book Amnesty cartoon by Phil Frank Overdue Book Amnesty, June 1 - June 15.

E-Books and QandA Cafe introduced to the Library.

2004

San Francisco Public Library turns 125!

Best sellers in 2004

Fiction

1. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

2. The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Andrew Sean Greer

3. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri

4. The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom

Nonfiction

1. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Al Franken

2. South Beach Diet, Arthur Agatston

3. Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss

4. The Price of Loyalty, Ron Suskind

5. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Mark Bittner