Lake Elsinore Library opened on September 25, 1908 by Altha Merrifield (1892-1982). The library had previously operated in her father's store on Main Street. When that building burned down, the library was relocated to several other sites until it received its own building on Graham Avenue in 1955. Altha Merrifield Cauch retired as librarian in 1968. The library moved to a former Wells Fargo bank building in 1998 and celebrated its centennial in 2008.