From Vaughn to Key Center: A Library for the Key Peninsula

February 13, 1942, was the 50th anniversary to the day since the Vaughn Bay Public Library Association was formed almost two generations earlier in 1892. It was time for a celebration.

Many of the founders were still living, and several, including Minnie Van Slyke, 70, and Ella Davidson, 89, had stayed active in the VBPLA over the years. In 1942, Van Slyke served as the association’s secretary, and Davidson was the librarian. Among the guests at the golden anniversary celebration were Julia Coblentz, then in her late 70s, who along with her husband Harry had donated the land for the library hall in 1894; Garda Fogg, who was six years old when her father Henry Fogg designed and built the hall that year; and Minnie Van Slyke’s niece Florabel Van Slyke Lockwood, born a few days before the library hall opened its doors in March 1894.

The event included a potluck dinner followed by a skit titled “Swept Off Her Feet” directed by drama and recreation teacher Agnes Bill. As birthday presents, the association received 25 books and $3.50 in cash, about $70 today, for the purchase of more books.

But change was in the air.

As early as 1940, hoping to inspire more community involvement in the association, the VBPLA discussed allowing men to serve as trustees. The suggestion was tabled at the time but would be revisited and adopted along with other amendments in 1947; the first man to be elected president in 1948 was Irving W. Embury.

And in 1941, in a move that would sow the seeds for public libraries statewide, the Washington legislature passed a law allowing counties to establish rural library tax districts. The act amended a law from 1935, which allowed counties to levy funds from all taxpayers, even those in incorporated cities and towns with taxpayer-supported libraries already, to create libraries in rural unincorporated areas. To correct that misalignment, Senators Kathryn Malstrom (D-Pierce County), chair of the senate’s State Library committee and the first woman senator in the state’s history, and G. Dowe McQuesten (R-Yakima) introduced Senate Bill 176 amending the 1935 law and authorizing counties to create rural library taxing districts “for the purpose of giving free public library service to their residents.” The bill allowed counties to impose a special levy on property taxes in unincorporated areas not to exceed $2 for every $1,000 of assessed value.

The bill passed and became effective March 12, 1941. Once tax revenue came in, each county would be able to pay for a bookmobile, a trained librarian, and a supply of books. At the general election in 1942, six counties, Clark, Grays Harbor, King, Pacific, Spokane, and Thurston, voted to create rural library districts. In 1944, the measure appeared on the ballot in unincorporated Pierce County and passed with 70% of the vote.

The county could affiliate with existing libraries to set up county library stations to serve the reading public. In 1946, the first such station in Pierce County opened in Gig Harbor, followed on the Key Peninsula by Vaughn and Longbranch. A county library station was established in Home-Lakebay in 1947. Initially, books would be loaned to the county by the Tacoma Public Library.

Over the next several years, county librarian Marion Cromwell visited the system’s rural libraries regularly, making suggestions on subjects ranging from shelving arrangements and cataloguing to the appearance of the facility. By all accounts, this collaboration was wholeheartedly welcomed by the VBPLA, not only because the county paid the librarian an hourly salary but also because more books, many more current, were now available and borrowed by the community. At the association’s annual meeting in February 1948, librarian Dorothy Blundell reported that a full two-thirds of the books circulated that year had come from the county.

The affiliation with the county library did not affect the association’s internal governance. The VBPLA continued to operate according to its constitution and bylaws, and the hall still belonged to the association. Hall rentals received from local organizations like the Upper Sound Grange and the Order of the Amaranth provided some revenue, but the upkeep of the aging structure and the constant need for updates weighed heavily on the perennially cash-strapped organization.

The establishment in 1956 of the Key Peninsula Civic Center at the old Vaughn high school and gym complex offered a way out. At a special meeting that summer, VBPLA president Harry Blundell suggested relocating the library to the civic center and leasing or selling the hall if there was interest.

The association debated the proposal and, in November, approved moving the library to the civic center, in the space in the old high school that today is home to the Key Peninsula Historical Society Museum. Marian Cromwell was in favor of the move as well, pointing out that parking was better at the civic center. The VBPLA would become a trustee of the Key Peninsula Civic Center Association and have a representative on its board. The cost for the trusteeship was a steep $1,000, almost $12,000 today.

To help pay for the trusteeship, the association approved the sale of the library hall. At an auction Feb. 2, 1957, the historic building was sold for $600 to Harmon Van Slyke, Sr., the son of Vaughn pioneers Alfred and Mary J. Van Slyke. To pay for the balance of the trusteeship, the association organized more card parties, bingo games, potlucks, and other social events, much like it had for decades. Finally, in return for the ladies of the VBPLA volunteering in the kitchen at the civic center’s New Year’s Eve bash in 1959, the KPCCA considered the final $50 balance paid.

In 1957, the name of the organization had been changed to the Key Peninsula Public Library Association, with membership open to anyone on the peninsula. Yet the KPBLA was still considered by its members and the public to be a continuation of the Vaughn Bay Public Library Association. The annual meeting in 1967 is described in the minutes as its 75th annual meeting, or 75 years since the founding of the VBPLA in 1892. And a sign in 1974 showing the library’s hours describes it as the Key Peninsula Branch of the Pierce County Public Library, “sponsored by the Vaughn Library Association.”

But the library’s dual affiliation was about to come to an end, as was the library association itself. In 1972, Pierce County began planning for nine new library buildings and, in 1979, it received a community block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a combined county library and community health center in Key Center. The branch at Evergreen Elementary School, where the Home-Lakebay and Longbranch libraries were consolidated in 1967, closed in 1977, leaving Vaughn as the oldest continuously operating library on the peninsula and the de facto predecessor of the Key Center branch of the Pierce County Library.

When the new 4,000-square-foot library was dedicated July 26, 1981, The News Tribune noted that it replaced “a much smaller branch that was located in nearby Vaughn.” The new facility had a capacity for 13,500 books, at least double the collection of the Vaughn library. The Friends of the Library, the local grassroots organization that had supported and promoted the project for several years, overwhelmingly preferred the name Key Peninsula Branch, but the county library’s choice, Key Center Branch, prevailed.

Almost 90 years elapsed since the Vaughn Bay Public Library Association was founded in the winter of 1892 until it receded in history’s rearview mirror in 1981. During that time, 18 women from the community had served as librarians, starting with Cornelia Hall in 1892 until 1979 when Margot Fleming retired. Fleming was succeeded by Patty Nettles of North Rosedale, a librarian with years of experience nationally. Generations of Vaughn and Key Peninsula residents had borrowed thousands of books; from 1972 to 1979 alone, under Fleming’s guidance, annual circulation increased from 12,000 to 16,000 books.

Today, over 130 years on, the heart of the Vaughn Bay library still beats at the Key Center Branch of the Pierce County Library, the library for the entire Key Peninsula.

This history feature is Part 2 of a two-part series. Read Part 1 here.