Upcoming Events at the
Morro Bay Library

A Little History of Our Library

Libraries are not made, they grow Morro Bay’s first library was established in 1922 as a branch of the County library system. It was housed in the Sewall building at 361 Main Street and Lillie Brown Medeiros was named librarian. Since the building also housed the Post Office and Lillie was also Postmaster, she was prohibited from checking books until the mail was distributed, generally by 2:00 in the afternoon.

In 1927, George Anderson moved the Sewall building up the street and built a dry goods store with the post office/library attached. All the library books were kept in the back of the room in a single bookcase.

In 1929 the bookcase was transferred to Olive Cotter’s photography shop in the 600 block of Main Street and Ms Cotter and her mother, Isabella, known as “Granny,” took over as library staff. Hours were Monday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to six and Saturday from four to six.

In 1930 the library was moved to the Maston Hotel on the west side of Main Street one lot south of Morro Bay Boulevard. Books, mostly fiction, were brought from the County Library four times a year.

The library moved to Main Street in 1940 under the management of Catherine Case until her retirement in 1950.

Marie McKennon, a retired teacher, acted as librarian from 1950 to 1954 and made improvements to upgrade the library services – more space, more books, children’s reading program and displays of the work of Morro Bay artists.

The library was moved to Main Street in 1956 under the direction of Erica Ness who was librarian until 1959 when Dorothy Woods took over the job.

Jean Castle was hired as Assistant Librarian in 1962 so the library could remain open five days a week.

Another move followed in 1965 to a transformed pool hall at 410 Morro Bay Boulevard.

A second staff assistant, Myra Mize, was added in 1971 and one year later, on February 27, the Morro Bay Women’s Club hosted an Open House and Tea to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Morro Bay’s Library.

Morro Bay’s Friends of the Library formed in 1974 and in 1975 a Board of Directors was elected consisting of Lily Collier (President), Jane Bailey (Vice President), Mildred Logan (Secretary), Fern Hulse (Treasurer) and Directors Milton Levy and Allen Rydall.

At about that time, Jude Yackle was hired as Assistant Librarian as replacement for Ms Castle. Five years later, Dorothy Woods retired and Jude Yackle Sanner became Morro Bay’s Librarian until her retirement 24 years later in 2009.

"Everything will be all right in the end. If it's not all right then it's not yet the end." - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

For the comfort of all attending events, please come fragrance-free to all our programs.

Morro Bay Friends of the Library hold regular book sales to raise funds for the library. Friends also provide volunteers to support library services and operations, publish a quarterly newsletter and maintain awareness of library needs and services throughout the community. For more information contact Red Davis via Email or go to Morro Bay Friends of the Library.