Stark Street Library

In 1891, after 27 years of dedicated fund raising, the Library Association of Portland opened this two-story, solid stone building on Stark  (now Harvey Milk), between SW 7th (now Broadway) and Park. It was built to house 20,000 volumes.

The group that would become the Library Association of Portland began soliciting subscriptions fo ra library located in 1863. The initiation fee was five dollars, with an annual subscription rate of twelve dollars. The first group of subscribers included many of Portland’s notables, among them Judge Matthew Deady, and the Ladd, Failing, and Corbett families. 

The library opened rooms in a building on First and Stark (now Harvey Milk), owned by Benjamin Stark. By March of 1864, 153 members had paid $2,500 in dues. Deady was one of the earliest proponents of a free public library system and worked toward that goal for many years. Portland druggist Stephen Skidmore left the library $5000 in his will, and other large bequests followed.  It was twenty-seven years before the library association had enough money to construct the 1891 building. The library’s design was influenced by the 1850 Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviéve in Paris. The Portland Art Association, which became the Pacific Northwest College of Art, was based on the second floor. 

The library was well visited, and its use soon overwhelmed the space. A larger library, designed by A. E. Doyle, was constructed on SW 10th between Taylor and Yamhill in 1913. That building still stands as the Multnomah County Central Library. 

Further Reading:
MacColl, E. Kimbark. Merchants, Money and Power: The Portland Establishment 1843-1913. Portland, Oreg., 1988.

Written by Trudy Flores, Sarah Griffith, © Oregon Historical Society 2002.