Community leaders and neighborhood residents celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Aurora Hills branch library on Saturday.
Megan Wianecki, manager of the branch library, said the day’s events were not just a celebration of the centennial, but all those who support the library and community.
She pointed to local organizations participating in the day’s activities, including area civic associations, Friends of the Arlington Public Library (FOAL), the Arlington Historical Society and the Friends of Urban Agriculture.
“It’s great to see so many people,” said Maureen Quinn, the Aurora Hills branch’s FOAL lead.
“How amazing it is that the library has been in our neighborhood all these years,” Quinn said at the commemorative event.
In her remarks, Quinn praised “our neighbors way back when [who] had the foresight” to establish a local library serving residents living in neighborhoods near what, decades later, would evolve into Crystal City and Pentagon City.
County Board members Susan Cunningham, Maureen Coffey and chair Matt de Ferranti attended the celebration, as did Sheriff Jose Quiroz. De Ferranti noted the importance of libraries in community life.
“This place belongs to everyone. It is not something to take for granted,” he said in his remarks.
Hanging on a wall at the library for the event was a banner offering some facts about life in 1926:
- President: Calvin Coolidge
- U.S. population: 117.4 million
- World population: 2 billion
- Cost of an average new home: $6,800
- Cost of a gallon of gas: 25 cents
- World Series champion: St. Louis Cardinals
- Future famous names born that year: Andy Griffith, Jerry Lewis, Harper Lee
From the 1870s to the 1930s, Arlington was carved into three supervisors’ districts: Washington, Arlington and Jefferson. Without any publicly funded libraries, the Jefferson District Women’s Club stepped in in 1926 to create one in the Aurora Highlands community. The PTA at Nelly Custis Elementary School also provided extensive support.
A decade after the Aurora Hills Library was founded, the county government in 1936 began work on creating a unified — albeit segregated — library system.
Volunteer-run libraries in Aurora Hills, Glencarlyn, Cherrydale, Clarendon and Columbia Pike were incorporated into the new system.
In 1937, Eleanor Leonard was appointed the first county librarian, and by 1939, operations were standardized — although individual branches continued to rely on volunteers for most staffing.
The Aurora Hills branch was long located in the 500 block of 23rd Street S., but by the 1960s was considered too small and out of date.
In 1969, county voters approved a $550,000 bond referendum to construct a successor. The final vote: 17,866 in favor, 11,071 opposed.
After passage of the referendum, plans called for the replacement library to be constructed as a new wing of Nellie Custis Elementary, but community opposition scuttled that proposal.
Instead, planning began in 1974 on a 24,000-square-foot complex on 18th Street S. that would include a new library, a replacement for Fire Station #5, a recreation center and a visitors center. Groundbreaking occurred in 1976 and the facility opened in 1978, at which point the county government sold the old library building.
An exhibit of historical materials on display at the library’s entrance traces its growth over the past century.
In 1946, the branch’s collection had totaled about 6,500 volumes. By 1962, that number had more than doubled, and today, the branch serves residents six days per week (Mondays through Saturdays).
Wianecki, the branch manager, reminded attendees that the library system’s summer-reading initiative was about to start.
Participants can earn free books and tickets to a Washington Nationals game, while FOAL will donate $1 to the Arlington Food Assistance Center for every person who completes the summer-reading challenge.
