San Rafael’s library began with a rapid community effort in 1887, when the Women’s Christian Temperance Union decided on April 20 to establish a coffee and reading room, then funded it with a Flower Festival and Musicale; by June 2 the Coffee Room and Free Library was open, and by early December fundraising, donations, and subscriptions had enabled the group to move into a rented building on Fourth Street, with the Library Association numbering more than 60 members who each paid $1 a month. On April 30, 1890, the Library Association formally presented the library to the town Library Trustees, transferring furniture, more than 1,000 books, and $33.50 in the treasury, while the town supported a free library through a library tax. In December 1904, the City Trustees resolved to provide operating funds and secure a site for a new library if Andrew Carnegie would finance the building, and local resident Judge William W. Morrow, a Trustee of the Carnegie Institution and Carnegie’s friend, secured a $25,000 pledge after speaking with him in New York City. The Library Trustees then raised the $6,500 needed to buy the site from 58 individuals and three corporations, the deed for the lot was filed on March 1, 1906, construction was delayed as San Francisco was rebuilt, and San Rafael Public Library was finally dedicated in its new Carnegie building on January 9, 1909, designed by Reid Brothers of San Francisco.