Cottonwood library opens new doors

Photo by Michael Woodward, Reporter

LONG-AWAITED MOMENT: The Cottonwood Community Library opened Saturday, Aug. 4. Forty new library cards were issued and 218 books were checked out on the library’s first day. From left to right: Dick Ashe, project manager for building the library; Renee Ashe, president of the library board; Suzanne Sargent, secretary of the board; Patsy Finck, board member; Elaine Lowell, child literacy advocate; Cheryl Walther, board member; Gayle Harrington, director; Janell Morgan, board member; Dr. James Reifert, library founder; Jackie Doll, volunteer; Mary O’Keeffe, board member.

Photo by Michael Woodward

FIRST CHECKOUT: Lucas Ashe checks out the first book at the Cottonwood Community Library with help from Sue Gilmore last Saturday during the grand opening.

“It shocked me when the Cottonwood library went down,” said Sharon Thomas, Cottonwood Branch Library director from 1969-1988, “because it was such an active, busy library. I had nightmares of little kids looking in the window and they’d say, ‘Mrs. Thomas, when are you going to read us a story?’ It broke my heart.”

Cottonwood’s library was closed, and the books were boxed and stored in the Anderson Branch Library.

The county library system was funded through the Shasta County general fund until the 1980s, when 14 branch libraries with 70,000 books were closed. In 1988, all libraries in Shasta County closed for several months.

“Some people became anti-county after that,” Thomas said. “Kids went there — rode their bikes there. They can’t get to Anderson by bike. People felt that the county had a lack of concern for the South County. A lot of the community felt that way.”

The county eventually reopened libraries, but only in Redding, Anderson and Burney.

After that, six communities mustered resources to raise their own libraries without county assistance: Cottonwood, City of Shasta Lake, Whitmore, Shingletown, Fall River Mills and Oak Run.

“They had to go underground because they weren’t supported by the county,” said Eileen Edwards, Cottonwood Branch Library director from 1960-1969. “This county was so lacking, they didn’t even get a bookmobile.”

In 1996, a group of people in the Cottonwood community, with the help of then-Supervisor Trish Clarke, got the books signed over from public to private property. The group rented the Jose house on Main Street, a brick building with a widow’s walk.

“We wanted to show the community we were serious about having a library,” Gayle Harrington, the director of the Cottonwood Community Library said.

This building held the library until 2000, when the library was moved to 3306 Main St.

This was the last location of the library until it was moved into its own, new building at 3427 Main St. The grand opening was Saturday, Aug. 4, 2007.

Cottonwood Library before 1988

Funding for Shasta County libraries was approved in 1948. The Cottonwood Branch Library was established Feb. 1, 1950, according to Shasta County Library documents.

By 1951, there were 22 branch libraries throughout the county. During 1951, there were 268 registered library users at the Cottonwood library. A total of 1,399 books were circulated that year.

The same county document names the Community Hall as the location, which is where the library was located with Anna Horn as the librarian. The hall at 3297 Chestnut St. was eventually used as a VFW hall and currently serves as the meeting place for the American Legion.

On the other hand, the Feb. 23, 1950 issue of The Shasta Courier named the opening of the Cottonwood Branch Library at “Boone’s Ice Cream Parlor, across from the post office in Cottonwood, with Mrs. Audrey Boone as branch librarian.”

The ice cream parlor was at the current location of Melinda’s Interior Designs, 20832 Front St., according to Thomas.

“I went there all the time and I remember Mrs. Boone, but I don’t remember a library in there,” Thomas said. “It was Joe’s before that. There were messages at the bottom of the ice cream cones to say whether you win a free cone. We’d bite off the bottom of our cone first to see if we won or not.”

A March 2, 1950 issue of the same publication mentioned the beginnings of a Cottonwood Community Hall to be built that would house a branch of the library.

Eileen Edwards was the head librarian from 1960-1969.

On Nov. 1, 1969 the library moved from the community hall to next door to the current Wild West Trading Company on Front Street. Thomas said the store was once a glass shop. The library moved next door to the glass shop and occupied the right half of the building with white trim. “It was a small area,” Thomas said.

“It was always very crowded, the actual space,” said Betty Avery, who supervised all branch libraries from 1969-1987. “We rotated books between branches. It was nice, because librarians at small branches could tell me what people wanted.”

Thomas took over for Edwards and ran the library until it was closed in 1988.

The library moved in the early 1970s into the same building as Melinda’s Interior Design, 20832 Front St. until 1988.

Editor’s note: Former Cottonwood Branch Library Director Sharon Thomas, Anderson Branch Library Manager Martee Boban, and the Shasta Historical Society contributed to the research for this article.