Fullerton, Orange County

Orange County area, Orange County region

opened 1907
Public library from 1907-1940
demolished, 1940

grant amount: $10,000
architectural style: Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival
architect: Hunt & Eager

The earliest Fullerton library was a "traveling circulating library" established in the Wm. J. Starbuck Drug Store by Mr. and Mrs. Starbuck. In 1902 a subscription reading room was established with the Starbuck books as nucleus. It was staffed and funded by a Reading Room Association which may have also been instrumental in applying for a Carnegie Grant soon after Fullerton's 1904 incorporation. An increase from the original $7,500 Carnegie grant was requested and subsequently $10,000 was offered. Plan approval was less readily forthcoming, but the building opened December 16, 1907. The library was designed by architects Hunt and Eager, in the Mission/Spanish Colonial style. The builder was George Croner. Additions were built in 1923 and 1926, but more space was needed. After its demolition in 1940, a new library was built.