Some libraries begin with a committed board of directors or spin off as a new branch from an already existing central library. Other libraries begin with a group of women who are determined to grow a place where books can be found and ideas will flourish. The North Tillamook Library at Manzanita began as a noble startup created by a few good women. Early Manzanita settler Helen Hollenstad is the keeper of the library’s archival memory. She wrote about Mrs. Ben Lane, who donated books to the community in 1930. At that time the books were stored in the real estate office space that Mrs. Johanna Lane shared with her husband Ben. A woman named Mrs. Van Groos soon became the official librarian and resident story teller during the children’s story hour.
A covey of books coupled with a few earnest women and a reliable space—these are the seeds that formed the earliest version of the Manzanita Library. Within a year this little offshoot of a library was circulating 250 books. Soon the library was receiving book donations from other libraries in Salem and Portland. By 1933 the fledgling library moved into the newly built Pine Grove Community Center, a small cabin which still stands today.
No library ever seems to have enough space and this little library was no exception. In 1978, a $1,000 kickoff donation of “seed money” to the Manzanita librarian, along with a helpful city council and generous community support that included donations, pancake breakfasts, auctions, wine tastings, and all kinds of fund raisers, led to the building that was eventually raised and houses the library today. The full roster of people who pitched in and helped to build this library is a fine example of what defines a genuine community! It was the combined efforts of this Manzanita community that allowed their library to officially become part of Tillamook County Library System on July 18, 1987.
Libraries We Love:
North Tillamook Library at Manzanita, Oregon– Good Things Grow
in the Midst of Great Beauty
Each month, we profile a library: Large, small, urban, rural, post-modern, quaint or neo-classic.
This month Patricia Vaccarino gives us an update on what is happening these days at the North Tillamook Library at Manzanita, Oregon. This article first appeared in The Connector July 2019. We’re reprinting it in this issue because the Library is fully open again!