La Retama Library on
Mesquite, 1954
Photograph Collection 1-
Box 4 |
Nellie Blucher Derry
wrote, “The formal dedication ceremonies
were held at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of March 31, 1955 followed by
open house until 8:30 that night. However, the library was moved
in February and opened to the public for use on March 2, 1955.”
La Retama Club members donated a display
case for the library’s entrance, assisted the City Council with the open
house, and remained active in the preparation of the new building.
La Retama club members later remembered,
“The book stock of almost 60,000 volumes was increased to
79,000 with enough space for 36,000 more
books.” Library hours increased from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. up to 70
hours a week to provide patrons extended access. “When the city
sold the Jones property for $25,000, Gazzie Warren [persuaded] the City
Council to allocate $6,000 of [the sale] to the library for custom-built
book stacks, [and a staff lounge].”
That year, Phyllis Burson
addressed La Retama Club on the growing Friends of the Library Movement
and suggested the creation of such an organization for Corpus Christi.
La Retama members agreed that a larger base of supporters would greatly
help the library. Many of he club’s members worked on the Steering
Committee, and The Friends of the Library was organized on April 30,
1956. Furthermore, La Retama Club immediately, and was the first
organization to do so, became 100% membership in the Friends (the name
by which the Friends of the Library became known.) The new effort by La
Retama and the Friends proved productive because Corpus Christi’s first
branch library, Parkdale, opened in 1962, with the Greenwood Branch in
following in 1966, the Flour Bluff in 1978—reopened as the current Janet
F. Harte Library in 2000, and the Northwest Library in 1982.
On April 9, 1980, La Retama
Club celebrated its 75th birthday. That day, the club
honored all of its 50-year members: Betty Allen, Zula Blucher, Alleyne
Coleman, Gladys Gibson, Hertha Kerridge, Violet McCampbell, Courtney
McCampbell and Catherine Terry.
Unfortunately, that same
year engineers declared the third floor of the La Retama Library on
Mesquite Street unsafe. Again, La Retama and Friends members leaped to
the aid of the library and surveyed the community for possible support
for a bond issue. The City Council approved a five million dollar bond
issue, and when election time came, Lucy Hill organized numerous clubs
including La Retama Club in a voter registration call campaign. The
bond passed and the new library construction began at the current site
of the Central Corpus Christi Library on September 8, 1984 at the corner
of Comanche and Tancahua. When the city made plans to move the main
library the final time from Mesquite to Comanche, discussion began as to
keep the name La Retama Library. In the end, the decision no longer to
use the name La Retama stood, and many people showed sadness at the end
of an era. The Central Corpus Christi Public Library held its ribbon
cutting on June 10, 1986. Yet, La Retama Club members remain active in
Corpus Christi Public Library work and planning, and wrote in 1985, “Our
support of the public library, since its founding in the year 1909 has
continued from three quarters of a century as an unbroken thread to the
present, and will continue—into the future.” On April 22, 2008 the City Council voted to return the name of the Central
Library to La Retama in honor of 100 years of library service.
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