Romayne Martin: remember her name
Jan 28, 2010
Early resident creates Palos Verdes Library District
PV News
By Betty Lukas, Special to the News
Were it not for an indomitable woman who moved with her husband to Palos Verdes Estates in 1923, the Peninsula libraries still would be part of the Los Angeles County Library System.
The fact that the Palos Verdes Library District exists today and will justifiably celebrate its 80th birthday on Saturday, Feb. 6 with a big party, is due to Romayne Martin’s persistence and smarts.
Like most cultural amenities, their origins rarely register to those who enjoy them. But the unique Mrs. Martin — mother of two little ones — was quick to notice that no library existed in this raw, little community, where her husband, Farnham Martin, had been hired to implement the landscape plans of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.
Never shy, Martin got approval from the county system to open a branch, and then asked Jay Lawyer, manager of the Palos Verdes Project, for space in the Project’s one commercial structure — the Gardiner Building — which still exists in Malaga Cove Plaza.
That first-floor branch was opened in April 1926, with Florence Gibbs as librarian, an “educated friend” selected by Martin. It contained 600 books furnished by the county, and its hours were from 3 to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Martin was on the board, of course. By December of that year, 2,592 books had been checked out with “about 1,000 books and 16 magazines kept on hand,” according to the Palos Verdes Bulletin’s faithful accounting of those early days.
By May 1927, the board started discussing “early erection of a library building near Malaga Cove Plaza and methods of financing it …” and by June 1928, residents passed a bond issue for $90,000 by 68 “yes” votes and seven “no” votes. By May 1930, the library and its companion art gallery were nearing completion. On June 3, 1930, the building formally opened to the public.
The total cost of the entire structure was $60,000, with the balance used for acquiring the site, furnishing and landscaping by Olmsted.
Martin was intimately involved in the entire project. She had selected the site; she had selected the architect — Myron Hunt — because she liked his work in Pasadena. She had selected the librarian, Agnes McMillan. She also created the tone of the library: It should be “invitational” and not “institutional.”
For the next 20 years, the Malaga Cove Library served the needs of the community, but by the late 1950s, the Peninsula’s population had grown well beyond its ability to adequately serve it. And the Malaga Cove location no longer was easily accessible to the burgeoning number of people who were moving to other locales on the Hill.
When McMillan died in 1957, new librarian Dave McKay urged the board to engage Long Beach librarian Edwin Castagna to survey the district’s needs.
No question, he advised, the district needed a central library in the nearly brandnew Peninsula Center. However, it wasn’t until June 1965, that 80 percent of local voters approved a $1.6-million bond earmarked for a new Peninsula Center Library and a branch library in Miraleste. Records show that efforts by the Peninsula Friends of the Library, the League of Women Voters and local businessmen were responsible for its passage.
The original board was increased from three to five members in 1966, and the Peninsula Center Library opened to the public on July 17, 1967. In the fall of 1970, the Miraleste Branch opened on Palos Verdes Drive East, replacing a storefront location in Miraleste Plaza.
During the past 43 years, the PVLD survived several changes in leadership and board membership, but it continued to offer more and more services to it patrons. Today, the door count is more than 675,000 patrons and 1,400 free programs attract nearly 43,000 people each year, according to Katherine Gould, the district’s present director.
“It’s amazing when you look back on the 80 years of the PVLD’s history, how much of what we do today has its roots in Romayne Martin’s vision of an ‘invitational’ library, and her original work to create the Malaga Cove Library as a place that not only offered books and reading, but space for art, conversation and community events.”
She continued, “I think Mrs. Martin would be proud to see how our libraries are thriving as vibrant community gathering places today.”
Author’s note: Martin, who celebrated her 100th birthday in 1989 — and died a year later — also was responsible for the existence of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, a project she undertook in 1925.
Betty Lukas is a freelance writer.