City of Puyallup announcement.
Puyallup, WA – The community is invited to celebrate the Puyallup Public Library’s 20th Anniversary celebration on Wednesday, September 7, 2022. From 5 to 7 pm, the Library will host an Open House to celebrate twenty years of learning, reading, and literacy in the community.
Built in August 2002, the Puyallup Public Library has stood proud and tall for twenty years. Funded through a bond measure, the Puyallup community came together in the early 2000s and voted to approve a new building. The building celebrates its birthday in September and doesn’t look a day older than when it was first built.
“This building is owned by the citizens,” says Patty Ross, Library Director. “They are the ones who deserve all of the praise and thanks for making this building a reality. We invite them all to come and celebrate our anniversary. We’ll have some special guests, who were instrumental in getting this building funded and built, say a few words at the ceremony.”
Since its founding, Puyallup has always had a library in some form. Before Ezra Meeker platted the town, Eliza Meeker would often lend her books out to the community from their log cabin in where is now Pioneer Park. By the late 1800s, Puyallup had outgrown this, and a proper library building was needed. The local community pledged $5,000 to build the very first Library building, which was located on Pioneer Ave just west of N Meridian. Then, at the turn of the century, citizens encouraged the City Council to apply for a grant from Andrew Carnegie to build a library. Carnegie, a well-known philanthropist, was building libraries across the country. The City applied for and received a grant of $12,500 to build a Carnegie Library in Pioneer Park, which opened in 1913.
Over the next 50 years, the Carnegie Library served the community well. However, by the 1960s, the building had fallen into disrepair. A new building was approved through a bond measure and was built in 1962. That building continued to serve Puyallup for the next 30 years. Then, in 1999, voters approved a bond measure to construct what is now the current Library building, continuing a legacy of the community’s prioritization of learning, reading, and literacy.
“Puyallup has a proud history of supporting its libraries, and I am proud to see the current building continue to serve the community twenty years later,” says Mayor Dean Johnson. “A library is a place of learning and discovery…a place where ideas are nurtured. They are also a place where imagination can take flight. Any given book on a shelf is a passport to a world of fantasy and wonder. It is important that we support our library so that future generations can enjoy it. It is also important to recognize that libraries are evolving over time. To make sure that our library stays relevant for the next twenty years, we as a City need to set a clear vision for where we want the Library to go in the future. By collaborating with staff and the community, I think we can discover what that vision will be moving forward.”
The Puyallup Public Library is located at 324 South Meridian in downtown Puyallup. For more about the Library’s 20th Anniversary celebration, please go to the Library’s website. Or you can contact Library Director Patty Ross at pross@puyallupwa.gov.
