Delridge Branch, The Seattle Public Library, opens on June 29, 2002.

  • By David Wilma
  • Posted 10/13/2002
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3986
See Additional Media

On June 29, 2002, the Delridge Branch, The Seattle Public Library opens at 5423 Delridge Way SW in West Seattle. The $3 million building includes 19 low-income apartments on the upper floors and a large meeting space. It is the third branch opened under the 1998 "Libraries For All" bond issue.

The Delridge neighborhood never had a proper branch library of its own. A small self-service library in a social-service agency had served the area before. In 1998, Seattle voters approved $196.4 million to build 27 new branch libraries and a new central library. The Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, a not-for-profit developer that handled the project, convinced the City to include apartments.

The new branch featured 5,600 square feet of space to hold 20,000 books, videos, and CDs. The collection includes works in Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Arabic to reflect the immigrant composition of the neighborhood.


Sources:

Phung Cat Le, "Check It Out: Delridge Branch to Open Ahead of Schedule," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 20, 2002, p. B-1; Alan Snel, "Check This Out -- Apartments Atop The Library," Ibid., June 11, 1999, p. C-2; Christine Clarridge, "New Library Checks Out Fine," The Seattle Times, June 30, 2002, p. B-1.


Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You