Ballard Library - heart of community

By Kay F. Reinartz

When I was in the Ballard Library last week I noticed that there were more Ballardites than a few weeks earlier sitting around the tables happily hunched over books and magazines. In the book stacks along the walls others, many of them elementary and high school students, hunted for specific titles. Still others leisurely strolled the book and video aisles looking for something to catch their interest and provide pleasant hours snugly indoors on a chilly rainy Ballard evening.

I joined the others at the self-check out line and headed for my car, my book of personal stories of the lives of five Chinese people in the decades following the Chinese revolution under my arm. I have just returned from a month in China with my husband and I am delighted to find this book that will help me understand recent Chinese history. I noted on my way out that a local author was speaking in the library's community room later that week and resolved to return to hear another writer talk about her work.

Evolving from the personal library of Ira Utter, the first known Euro-American settler, in the 1860s the Ballard library has been the heart of the community. Utter made his way to the Elliott Bay area very early, less than two years after the Collins and Denny-Boren settling parties. Living alone on Salmon Bay (as today's Ballard was known) he enjoyed the company of books that legend has it he kept safe and dry in a large chest. Occasionally he trekked over Queen Anne Hill to exchange books with the pioneers living over there. By the mid-1860s there was a group of settlers on Salmon Bay and some of them were of a reading bent. Utter spearheaded the founding of a "shareholder's library." This library consisted of a collection of books loaned by the settlers. Historical records tell us that initially the majority of the books were Utters. Most likely the books were kept at Utter's cabin, although no information has been found to date to verify this. One can imagine the Salmon Bay settlers, longing for something to read during the rainy months when they spent long hours in their cabins, walking through the dense forest to Utter's place on Salmon Bay. Undoubtedly, many a long discussion took place in front of the fireplace at Utter's discussing the finer points of the books read.

These early settlers were, as a whole, well educated for the day with Utter had studied the law before going west to seek his fortune. Henry Smith, pioneering over in the Interbay area, was a medical doctor. Mary Ross, who founded the first school on Salmon Bay, had completed high school, as had many other settlers. The other settlers often remarked on "Mary's bookish bent." Some said she should be tending to her pioneer duties more diligently rather than sitting with a book in her hands.

The historic record shows that women like Mary, individually and as members of organizations, were greatly concerned with the growth educational and cultural aspects of the community. Like so much of Ballard's early history, the actually founding of the first "public library" is closely tied to Ballard's development as a thriving lumber mill town.

Many of the millworkers in the 1890s were single young men who lived in crowded rooming houses with several men typically sharing a single room. For something to do after the closing mill bells rang these men would troop over to the numerous saloons on Ballard Avenue to while away the hours. The Ballard situation was common across the United States in this era of mass immigration from Europe of single men who readily found jobs in the cities in the mills and factories. Drinking after work was the most common activity and alcoholism had rapidly become a national problem. Frequently married men also spent hours in the saloons with their families suffering as a result.

One response to this national problem was the formation of temperance organizations across the country whose goal was to break the widespread addition to alcohol. The Women's Temperance Union was one of the largest, and historically most effective, temperance organizations. A chapter of the Temperance Union was formed by Ballard women and in 1900 they began serious fund raising to finance a free reading room on Ballard Avenue with the objective of providing the mill hands an alternate to the saloons as a place to go after work. The women began with bake sales and basket socials. They sold items they knit and crocheted. They went to Ballard City Hall and asked the municipal government to provide funds. Through their initiative numerous Ballard churches joined the effort. For decades the Women's Christian Temperance Union reading room was an institution on Ballard Avenue. Stories are told how more than one young mill hand, who preferred to spend his time at the reading room after work, met his future wife among the many temperance-minded young women who did volunteer work at the reading room after school or work.

Dr. Kay F. Reinartz may be reached at bnteditor@robinsonnews.com