Central Library turns 100 – LAist
The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. (Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library).We explore its scrappy origin story
Cato Hernández scours through tons of archives to understand how our region became the way it is today.
The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles hits a big milestone this year: It’s turning 100 years old.
The century-old landmark has been through a lot of changes since opening, but how we got this iconic library in the first place is a saga in its own right.
A scrappy start
To understand what it took to get here, we’ll go back to 1872. Back then, the city of L.A. only had about 6,000 residents. Dirt roads were everywhere and agriculture was king.
The region was still fresh off the transition to American rule, and local leaders were just starting to dream up what the city could look like, especially in the downtown area.
There was no “LAPL” during this time — a group called the Los Angeles Library Association attended to local reading needs. John Szabo, current L.A. city librarian, says that early system was pretty bare bones.
“ It was a very small one room library with a handful of books,” he told host Larry Mantle on LAist 89.3’s AirTalk.
That was in the Downey Block building at Temple and Main streets, which is where the Federal Courthouse stands today. There were newspaper racks and shelves with about 750 books, while another space had checkers and chess — because what more do you need to fuel young minds?
The city needed a lot more because of rapid growth, but money was an issue. To help meet the demand, the association became an official city department in 1878. That allowed local officials to fund their new “Los Angeles Public Library.”
Over the years, LAPL would open satellite “reading rooms” and branch libraries. However, the main collection was expanding quickly. The books were essentially couch-surfing for years. They moved four times into different rented spaces, including into City Hall in 1889.
This was a temporary home that lasted for a couple of decades. Then, the effort to build a central library picked up steam. One of those was with a plan to put it in Pershing Square, but the project went awry. So the collection moved again — this time into a department store building (while it was still running), between women’s clothes and furniture, where it stayed for six years.
A new, innovative library
When Everett Perry, an energetic city librarian, took the helm in 1911, he lobbied for years for a central library to be created.
Finally, a decade later, voters passed a measure for a $2 million bond to pay for a new dedicated building. That would become the Central Library we have today. L.A. was a little late among large U.S. cities for getting a central library, but it finally opened in July 1926.
See Also: https://secretlosangeles.com/la-public-library-time-capsule/
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The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open its doors next year – LAist
Destiny Torres is LAist’s general assignment and digital equity reporter.
Published Nov 12, 2025 12:20 PM
The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open its doors next year
The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open its doors next year. The Exposition Park campus will open to the public Sept. 22.Topline:
The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park is set to open on Sept. 22, officials announced on Wednesday.
More about the museum: The museum will house 35 galleries across 100,000 square feet. The museum’s permanent collection encompasses more than 40,000 works. Officials said the space will house one of the most significant collections of narrative art.
What artists are included? The Lucas Museum’s collection features works by Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Frida Kahlo, Maxfield Parrish and others. Comic art creators, including Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta and Chris Ware, will also be featured. The museum also houses models, props, concept art and costumes from museum co-founder George Lucas’s filmmaking career.
Officials said: “This is a museum of the people’s art—the images are illustrations of beliefs we live with every day. For that reason, this art belongs to everyone,” Lucas Museum co-founder Mellody Hobson said in a statement. “Our hope is that as people move through the galleries, they will see themselves, and their humanity, reflected back.”
Dig Deeper … into the Lucas Museum’s vision .
Continue/Read Original Article Here: The long-awaited Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open its doors next year | LAist
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>>Administrators at White Memorial have told doctors not to call a detained patient’s family members, even to find out what type of medication they’re on or what conditions they have, doctors told LAist. Hospital leaders also have told doctors to allow immigration agents to remain by a detained patient’s side, even during consultations, inhibiting frank discussions between doctors and their patients and potentially violating patient privacy laws. Doctors say this is not typical protocol for any patients, including those brought in by local police or sheriff’s deputies.<<
https://laist.com/news/politics/boyle-heights-hospital-ice-agents-patient-care-privacy-rights
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Nicole Rucker’s tip for the best chocolate brownies? Rip up the rulebook
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https://www.diningandcooking.com/2161010/nicole-ruckers-tip-for-the-best-chocolate-brownies-rip-up-the-rulebook/
LAist’s podcast The Big One (season 1) and The Big Burn (season 2) has been dropping new episodes to my Apple Podcast feed for the recent fires. https://laist.com/podcasts/the-big-burn
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As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis dives deep into personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and maybe even thrive while the world around us burns.
Yoooo congrats to my #USC faculty colleagues who delivered their #union petition to #NLRB & to our admin today! ✊🎓
@academicchatter https://laist.com/news/education/usc-faculty-move-to-unionize
I don't know if it's nerdy or cynical, but I look very carefully at who pays for ads on TV and in the mail. Also, I sometimes look up PACs that text. One had collected $100k but distributed only $1k to 1 candidate.
In Calif. "So how do we find out more about who’s paying for them?" #LAist
https://laist.com/brief/news/politics/political-mailers-campaign-spending
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tools for commensality 🧿
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