A Library in Los Angeles: Wilmington Branch

It’s National Library Week. Although I can’t travel far during the current pandemic, I visited a nearby architectural gem without violating the social distancing rules: almost a “drive-by,” but I was able to get out of the car to shoot some photos on a quiet street.

In a recent blog post, I wrote about the surviving structure from Civil War era Camp Drum, Drum Barracks, in Wilmington, California, constructed 1862-63.

You’re excused if Wilmington isn’t a familiar California place name.

In the mid 19th century, Wilmington was an independent city, larger than Los Angeles proper, home of the newly established Port of Los Angeles. Annexed by Los Angeles in 1909 — in order to gain more control over the port and its commerce, as well as one of the richest oil fields in the U.S. — Wilmington now has about 54,000 residents in 10 square miles.

While Wilmington’s citizens weren’t unanimously in favor of annexation, there were advantages.

One addition to the town, arriving in 1927, was an attractive new branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Designed by W. E. McAllister in a version of Spanish Colonial Revival, it’s small but stylish, set on the corner in a quiet residential neighborhood.

Obscured now by palms and possibly one of Wilmington’s trademark camphor trees (left, above), the one-story building has side wings to left and right of the central block extending away from the street.

The highly stylized entablature or frieze over the entrance is probably molded concrete. Whether or not the mold was custom-designed for this structure, I’ve been unable to determine.

This is not one of six Carnegie libraries built in Los Angeles in 1911, two of which I’ve written about at the following links: Lincoln Heights and Cahuenga branches.

Instead, the growing size, population and reach of Los Angeles was served by a steadily expanding public library system that today encompasses the LA Central Library and 72 branches.

This structure is no longer a library, although there is still a Wilmington branch library, located a few blocks away, opened in 1988. This original building now serves — as do innumerable old library buildings across the U.S. — as a community center. It, along with a number of Los Angeles branch libraries, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

For ways to engage with your local library during the pandemic stay at home, please see my previous post at this link.

Seeing the Former Wilmington Branch.

The building is at 309 W Opp St. on the NW corner of W Opp and N Fries. Bear in mind that there’s residential curb parking. Please do not block someone’s driveway.

Licensable, high resolution versions of some photographs in this post, and select images from other Under Western Skies posts are available on Shutterstock.com. Click on the linked photos, or CLICK HERE to view the Underawesternsky photo portfolio.

© Brad Nixon 2020