Sunset Branch Library

Sunset Branch is a Carnegie library, opened to the public in 1918 at 1305 18th Avenue: two storeys of concrete frame and reinforced masonry, 8,576 square feet, serving the Sunset. The commission minutes of the 1940s show how a building like it was kept up — a $390 interdepartmental work order to cover painting, and a $900 job estimate from Public Works to renew the copper saddle on the main vent, repair the copper gutters and install an iron ladder on the outside of the building. Its retrofit is described with the same specificity: the Arts Commission's Civic Design Review heard that the project involved disabled access at Irving and 18th Avenue, altering the exterior, and seismic bracing achieved by drilling through the masonry and inserting number 11 reinforcing bar through the facade — without disturbing the character of the building. The branch has also been funded to change what it holds. In 2002 the Board of Supervisors authorised the library to accept and expend a $10,000 grant from the California State Library's Partnerships for Change programme, under the federal Library Services and Technology Act, to enlarge the Asian language collection and increase Asian-interest and Asian-language programming here.