Everett Public Library Celebrates 130 Years

Everett Public Library celebrates 130 years.

On Monday, June 10th, the Everett Public Library is celebrating 130 years.

It all started on June 10th, 1894, when a group of local women met in the home of Mary Lincoln Brown to form a Woman’s Book Club. Their aim was the “improvement the minds” through the study of literature, but more specifically, the establishment of a public library.

Everett Woman’s Book Club 1985 – credit: Everett Public Library

Gathering books and petitioning Everett City Council when funds were scarce, the Everett Woman’s Book Club set up a temporary library in the home of one of the members. In 1898, the city offered them three rooms in the City Hall.

The Club continued to push for permanent quarters, next moving to a small building, and in 1905 they received a Carnegie grant to design an official library for the city of Everett.

Made possible by a $75,000 bequest from industrialist Leonard Howarth, the Everett Public Library at 2702 Hoyt Avenue was designed by prominent northwest architect Carl Gould in the spring of 1933 and opened to the public on October 3rd, 1934.

In 1984 the Evergreen Branch expansion was greenlit. It opened in 1989 and was recently updated in 2019.

“In our endeavor to broaden our sphere, and make the library accessible to our citizens, we have been singularly encouraged… It will be a manifestation of material progress toward getting the book to the person who can’t get to the book.” – Mary Frank, Head Librarian of Everett Public Library, 1914.