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Sellwood-Moreland Library

Library in Oregon

Field	Value
name	Sellwood–Moreland Library
image	Sellwood-Moreland Library in Portland.jpg
caption	Exterior in 2013
map_type	Portland
owner	Multnomah County Library
location	Sellwood
address	7860 S.E. 13th Avenue
location_town	Portland, Oregon
location_country	United States
coordinates
opened_date	February 12, 2002
floor_area	4375 ft2
architecture_firm	Waxman & Associates (exterior); Thomas Hacker and Associates (tenant consultant)
website	[Sellwood-Moreland Library](http://events.multcolib.org/venues/sellwood-moreland-library)

The Sellwood–Moreland Library is a branch of the Multnomah County Library, in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. First established in 1905 as the Sellwood Reading Room, it operated in several Sellwood locations before re-opening in 2002 in a new mixed-use building at S.E. 13th Avenue and Bidwell Street.

History

First established in 1905 as the Sellwood Reading Room, this small library in a storefront opposite Sellwood School was the first public library in Multnomah County aside from the main library in downtown Portland. The reading room's collection, provided by the Portland Library Association, amounted to 150 books. Judged too small for the community's needs, the library was expanded in the same location to 1,000 volumes in 1907, when it was renamed the Sellwood Branch Library.

Two years later, the library was re-located to 570 S.E. Tacoma Avenue, closer to the business district and a (now defunct) streetcar line. In 1915, it was moved again, this time to a rental property at 582 S.E. Nehalem Street, and in 1931 it was moved to 1406 S.E. Nehalem Street. After the owners of the Nehalem Street building sold it, the community decided to finance its own building at S.E. Milwaukie Avenue and Lexington Street. Designed by architect Loyal Lang, the 2204 ft2 library opened on September 30, 1965.

Bonds approved by county voters in 1996 provided money to renovate branch libraries, including Sellwood-Moreland. By then, the existing library had plumbing, mechanical, and other problems, and it lacked the wiring needed to support modern technology. It was overcrowded; designed to hold 6,500 items, it held 31,200. In 2000, the Multnomah County Commissioners agreed to lease space in a mixed-use building to be constructed at S.E. 13th Avenue and Bidwell Street. The old library closed in January 2002, and the new library opened on February 12, 2002. Its floor space amounts to 4375 ft2 in a building that includes commercial space and 16 residential condominiums. The old building was sold in 2003 for $210,000.

In 2025, the library closed temporarily for interior renovations and improvements funded by a 2020 building bond..

References

"Sellwood-Moreland Library".
(2012-08-29). "Sellwood-Moreland Library history".
Christ, Janet. (February 18, 2003). "Portland County Selling 2 Former Library Buildings". The Oregonian.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1905-establishments-in-oregon libraries-in-portland,-oregon library-buildings-completed-in-1965 multnomah-county-library libraries-established-in-1905 buildings-and-structures-in-sellwood-moreland,-portland,-oregon

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