Added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 19, 1987

The present system consisting of a Central Library and forty-six branches supplemented by eighty deposit stations serves a large portion of the city’s 441 square miles of territory. But much remains to be accomplished before the ultimate goal of the Library Commissioners and the Librarian is attained – namely the placing of branch libraries at community centers with a frequency that requires no citizen to walk more than a mile to reach the nearest branch.

– Everett R. Perry, City Librarian, Hand Book of the Branch Libraries, 1928

In 1987, the Washington Irving Branch library was added to the National Register of Historic Places, along with 20 of its fellow branches of the Los Angeles Public Library. In addition to their fine period architecture, the branches collectively tell the story of how the library system grew in the first few decades of the 20th century…which is in itself a reflection of how the city was developing. So before we delve into the Washington Irving Branch, let’s set the scene. 

The 1910s and ‘20s saw LA’s population increase nearly four-fold. The oil and citrus industries were booming, Hollywood attracted many thousands of hopeful actors and film industry workers, and the completion of the LA Aqueduct in 1913 led to the annexation of dozens of neighboring communities, thirsty for LA’s surplus water.

These were big growth year’s for LA’s branch library system, too. Around the turn of the 20th century, residents in the outlying areas of LA could go to one of the many semi-permanent book distribution centers scattered around the city. They were housed at elementary schools, social service agencies, even corner drugstores. But by the 1910s, the Library Board was firmly focused on evolving the system into permanent branch buildings, staffed by trained librarians.

Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie sponsored LA’s first six permanent branch libraries, with a $210,000 gift in 1911 (see my visits to the Cahuenga Branch and Lincoln Heights Branch for examples of Carnegie libraries). LA voters passed a $2,500,000 bond measure in 1921 to fund a second wave of library construction, including the new central library downtown, and 11 new branches across the city. Four years later another bond measure, this time for $500,000, bought the city 14 new branches between 1926 and 1928, including the Wilshire Branch, Richard Henry Dana Branch and John C. Fremont Branch. 

The Washington Irving Branch Library, serving the West Adams community, was part of this third wave of construction. As early as 1922, the West Washington Improvement Association lobbied the city to establish a branch in the neighborhood. The city bought the lot at Arlington Avenue and West 18th Street in 1922, and after the bond money was secured in 1925, they got to work quickly. Washington Irving went from taking bids from contractors to opening to the public in just eight months.

LA has a long tradition of naming libraries after famous literary figures that may or may have had any connections to Los Angeles. Washington Irving – author of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” – never made it to LA, as far as I can tell. Though he was the ambassador to Spain in the 1840s, just a couple decades after Spain lost California to Mexico. So that’s something!

The architects were Allison & Allison, a brother-brother firm well known in Los Angeles for the awe-inspiring CalEdison Building downtown, the First Congregational Church and several of the original buildings at UCLA, including Royce Hall. They also designed the Van Nuys Branch (now a law firm), finished the same year as the Washington Irving Branch. 

The Brothers Allison were masters of Romanesque and Mediterranean revival styles, and both were on display in this one-story jewel of a library. The roof is low-pitched and topped with red clay tiles, an Italianate version of the Spanish colonial style that was sweeping Southern California at the time. Outside you see alternating bands of brick and plaster, a visual motif that you might see in renaissance-era buildings in Tuscany or Lombardy (you’ll also see that combination on Allison & Allison’s work at UCLA). 

Washington Irving was set up with a basic rectangular floor plan, one of three plans that the library system’s superintendent of buildings specified for the 1920s branches. The basic idea was to place a charging desk close to the main entrance, both to supervise entries and exits, and to divide the children’s and adults reading areas. 

The main reading room was framed with exposed wooden trusses painted black and gold, with pendant lamps hanging down and linoleum floors. To the northwest was a club room, graced with a fireplace on one end – fairly common for libraries in the days before central heating. Much less common was the semi-circular bay window, resembling the apse of a church, projecting from the east end of the reading room. Lined with tall leaded glass windows to refract the morning light, this little reading nook would have absolutely been my spot, were I a West Adams youth in the 1980s.

Completed in late 1926, Washington Irving Branch held a formal dedication on January 10, 1927. Architect David Allison talked about how architecture impacts our lives; First Assistant Librarian Althea Warren’s talk bullishly about the burgeoning branch library system. The Mount Vernon Junior High School Band played what I’m sure was a memorable couple tunes. In my imagination, they did a jazzy interpretation of the “Headless Horseman” song that Bing Crosby sings in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. 

The Washington Irving Branch library served its community for over 60 years, as West Adams transformed into a more ethnically diverse neighborhood. Originally a wealthy white enclave, West Adams became a haven for affluent Black families after the Supreme Court’s Shelley v. Kraemer decision struck down racially restrictive housing covenants in 1948. A 1969 retrospective of the library’s previous decade captured the changing populace in 1968-69: 

The pattern of population development is the same as that which exists in manny communities of the inner city. Blacks in larger proportion, with caucasians, orientals, and spanish groups in the minority. Many rest homes and half-way homes for young people have sprung up and are reflected in the branch’s patronage.

– Washington Irving Branch History, 1959-69 (Los Angeles Public Library, 1969)

But as the community grew, the Washington Irving Branch started to feel cramped. As far back as 1968, news reports indicated that the Library commissioners were meeting to “discuss lack of space and personnel” in this and seven other central LA library branches. By the late 1980s it was clear that size wasn’t the only issue. Washington Irving’s A/C, parking, water fountains and – most importantly – seismic safety were no longer up to the library system’s standards. A bond measure passed in 1989 authorized $53.4 million to replace or renovate LA’s aging branches, and Washington Irving was one of the branches under consideration. 

At an emotional public meeting in May of 1990, The LA Public Library Commission voted 4-1 to move the library to a different location, instead of upgrading and expanding the original Allison & Allison building. City Councilman Nate Holden promised that the City would find something to do with the building. “I don’t believe that for one second,” one wary resident told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. “What are they going to turn it into – a police station? A fire station? It’s a library, damn it.” 

The following year, the Library Commission voted not to move the Washington Irving Branch until a new tenant had been found. It would seem that the City of LA reneged on that commitment, because the building at 18th and Arlington is still vacant, fenced off and boarded up, while a new Washington Irving Branch library opened in 2000, about six blocks west at 4117 West Washington Boulevard. The firm of Fields Devereaux Architects & Engineers creatively incorporated the alternating red brick and tan motif in their design, a sweet callback to the original Washington Irving Branch.

So…24 years later, what’s going on? Based on this recording of the November 18, 2022 meeting of the City of LA’s Board of Public Works, it would seem that Lehrer Architects (the firm behind the Tiny Home Villages and the new five-story mausoleum at Hollywood Forever) has been approved to rehabilitate the old building, and transform it into a center for children’s literacy and STEM programs, to the tune of $14 million. There are some cute architectural models of the proposed rehab on the Lehrer Architects website. The officials at that 2022 meeting acknowledged that retrofitting an unreinforced masonry building is a complex, time-consuming task, and estimated that the rehabbed building would be finished in late 2025 or early 2026. When I visited in November of 2024, it looked like work hadn’t been started yet, so who knows what the timeline is at this point? It WOULD be pretty cool if it opened in late 1926, just in time for the building’s 100th anniversary, yeah? 

Thanks to Andrew Seth Cohen for being tall and taking all of the color photographs that aren’t obstructed by a fence.

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ “Bids on Library” (Daily News, April 10, 1926 – via UC Riverside California Digital Newspaper Collection)

+ “Branch history, 1959-1969” (PDF – Los Angeles Public Library, 1969)

+ Feldman, Paul: “Extending a Shelf Life : Mid-City Library’s Patrons Would Rather See Branch Upgraded Than Replaced” (Los Angeles Times, March 21, 1990)

+ Groener, Tom: “New Washington Irving Library Opens in West Adams” (PDF – West Adams Heritage Association Newsletter, No. 170, March 2000)

+ Hand Book of the Branch Libraries (Los Angeles Public Library, 1928) (PDF)

+ “Library heads slate meet for March” (Southwest Topics-Wave, February 29, 1968 – via UC Riverside California Digital Newspaper Collection)

+ Los Angeles Public Library: “Groundbreaking Festivities for the Washington Irving Branch” (PDF – August 9, 1997)

+ Mitchell, John: “Tenant Will Be Sought for Library” (Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1991)

+ Multiple Property Submission to the NRHP for LA Public Library Branches (1913-1930)

+ “New Branch of Library to be Opened Today” (Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1926 – via ProQuest)

+ “New Homes for Books” (Daily News, April 15, 1926 – via UC Riverside California Digital Newspaper Collection)

+ “New Library Opens Doors” (Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2000 – via ProQuest)

+ Ramos, George: “Panel Decides to Move Irving Branch Library” (Los Angeles Times, June 1, 1990)

+ Taylor, Scott: “Washington Irving: Diplomat” (Georgetown University Library, January 31, 2017)

+ “Washington Irving Library” (Lehrer Architects website)