OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Overview

The Mechanics's Institute was formed in 1854 to "...provide technical education and training for mechanics and to promote local and California industry...." (See "Mechanics' Institute," accessed 09/04/2009.) This first library building was built between 1854-1860.

Building History

The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, (p. 47) described the Mechanics' Institute Library: "This library, organized in 1855, contains 18,000 volumes, of which 2,500 are arranged as a reference library consisting principally of sets of Reports of Learned Societies, viz: the London Agricultural, the Zoological, the Geological, the Institute of Civil Engineering, etc. Connected to the Library is a reading room well supplied with the leading scientific and literary periodicals of the day and an interesting cabinet containing several hundred specimens of interesting objects in natural history, models of machinery, and other interesting and curious matters. This library occupies the main hall of the elegant building of the Association on Post Street between Montgomery and Kearny."

PCAD id: 13511