30th Anniversary Celebration of the opening of the Main Library, Sunday, December 10, 2:30 p.m.

The Santa Fe Public Library’s Main Library is celebrating 30 years at its current location of 145 Washington Avenue on Sunday, December 10 from 2:30 p.m. – 4:00pm.

The Library is inviting those who helped move the old Library from 120 Washington Avenue across the street to its current location in 1987 as special guests for the Celebration!   All are asked to join us in celebration and to sign a special guest book to commemorate the 30^th Anniversary.

Please come join us for a trip down memory lane with bizcochitos and live music from the MARC Record Trio! The band plays a bohemian mix of covers from everywhere, on guitar, bass, accordion, and percussion. A reception in the Community Room will welcome new and former Library supporters. The Library asks that the public invite their friends and neighbors to come by to celebrate and say hello.

Members of the community and staff, coordinated by Library Director Marcy Litzenberg, formed a chain across Washington Avenue and 20,000 books were placed in the new Library building. Over 1,100 residents joined the chain and helped open the Library in 1987. The Library was assisted in the celebration by the members of the Santa Fe Woman’s Club and Library Association. The original Library in Santa Fe was founded by the Woman’s Board of Trade and Library Association in 1896 in the barracks at Fort Marcy.

The current Library was formerly a Court House and then redesigned as City Hall, with the fire department and police department in the building.  City Council met in the old judges’ chamber which today is the Southwest Reading Room.

The original Berardinelli Building was designed by the famous architect John Gaw Meem and completed in 1932. His design of the Southwest Reading Room includes a parquet floor, library tables, and floor to ceiling glass cases for rare books. The high plaster walls support a wooden ceiling of boards laid over with carved wooden vigas and carved crossbeams.  The wrought iron lamps and tin chandeliers add a soft glow to the room. The room is popular for readers and computer users today.