Concord, Contra Costa County

San Francisco Bay/Delta/Sacramento area, San Francisco Bay Area region

opened 1917
Public library from 1917-1959
demolished, 1959

grant amount: $2,500
architectural style: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival
architect: J. P. Ogborn

Concord's Carnegie was built as a branch of the Contra Costa County Library, one of a number in the many branches in the county's smaller communities (Byron, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, El Cerrito, Brentwood, among others). Incorporated in 1905, Concord had a population of just 703 in 1910. A 1912 letter from the Antioch Women's Club had spurred a visit to Contra Costa county by county library organizer Harriet Eddy, and a county library was established in Contra Costa County in 1913. In 1914 the County Library requested $7,500 from the Carnegie Corporation for libraries in Antioch, Concord, and Walnut Creek ($2,500 per building). This would remain the least amount allocated for a California Carnegie. The County Library guaranteed the 10% annual upkeep but required that the communities themselves provide the sites. In Concord this was the old Concord Plaza, now Todos Santos Plaza, on Salvio Street. Carnegie funding was granted in June, 1915 and the Concord building was dedicated on June 23, 1917. The building, designed by architect, J.P. Ogborn , incorporated some elements of Spanish Revival style. It served as a library until 1959 when it was demolished.

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