🏢 Los Angeles Public Library — Los Angeles, California

Cahuenga Branch Library

A 1916 Carnegie library in East Hollywood, Cahuenga was the last of LAPL's six original Carnegie branches and is designed so the whole floor can be watched from its center.

📖 About Cahuenga Branch Library

The Cahuenga Branch Library opened on December 4, 1916, in East Hollywood and was the last of six Los Angeles branches built with Andrew Carnegie's $210,000 gift. Designed by architect Clarence H. Russell — who had earlier worked with Norman F. Marsh on the canals of Venice, California — the building cost about $34,000 to construct and is a compact example of Italian Renaissance Revival design, with a low-pitched overhanging hip roof of clay tile, a tawny tapestry-brick façade, and a raised basement. Its clover-leaf, or "butterfly," floor plan was laid out so a single librarian could supervise the entire reading room from the center, and the original entrance rose from the sidewalk to a veranda by way of a double stairway with matching scroll-like volutes. Recognized as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 314 in 1986 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, the branch was renovated and seismically retrofitted between 1990 and 1996.

⭐ What makes this branch special

• Opened December 4, 1916 — the last of LAPL's six original Carnegie branches
• Italian Renaissance Revival design by Clarence H. Russell with a clay-tile hip roof
• "Butterfly" floor plan letting staff supervise the whole reading room from the center
• Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 314 and on the National Register of Historic Places

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