Grand Avenue Library

Local school teacher Rue Randall Clifford rode horseback through the city gathering signatures to secure a $10,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie and build the city's first library. Carnegie gave away much of his fortune, around $60 million, to build nearly 1,700 libraries across the country. On August 15, 1916, South San Francisco's Carnegie Library opened to the public. In 1951, the library's main room was expanded and a children's wing, with a Wynken, Blynken and Nod tile mural, was added. In 2016, one hundred years after it first opened, the library was extensively renovated, with the children's area moved to a larger space, a classroom created, and an outdoor patio added.

South San Francisco, California · United States