HOMETOWN CELEBRITY—Miss Moorpark 2011 Allie Woerner colors with Girl Scouts, from left, Ayssa Horton, 12; Raylynn Lipsky, 11; and Harley Johnson, 10, during Moorpark City Library’s 100th anniversary celebration on Jan. 28. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers The original Moorpark library opened in 1912, in a small room of a multipurpose clubhouse on Charles Street.

With a collection consisting of about 60 books—many of which belonged to the farming families who lived in the old, rural town—Moorpark’s library was built on a foundation of community and sharing.

Founding members of Moorpark Women’s Fortnightly Club, which was formed only seven years earlier, took monetary and book donations and shared their resources to create the town library.

And for the first five years of its existence, the library shared space with MWFC and the first high school in eastern Ventura County, said Heather Cousin, Moorpark’s present-day head librarian.

BOOKWORM—Kayla Tapking, 4, chooses a favorite book from the shelves at the Moorpark City Library during its 100th anniversary celebration on Jan. 28. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers “It wasn’t unique for a particular group in a community to start a library,” Cousin said. “It wasn’t unique for a group in a community to come up with funds and build a building. But for this particular group of people, at this time and in a place the size of Moorpark, to be so forward-thinking as to establish a library was huge, because this city was almost exclusively a farming community.

“ To have these men and women say ‘we value this so much that we’re going to put the time and effort into constructing a library, building it and growing it,’ that’s pretty remarkable.”

Last Saturday, the Moorpark City Library kicked off its centennial celebrations with an open house commemorating 100 years of service.

The Jan. 28 event featured family crafts and activities, as well as an historical exhibit highlighting old books, newspaper clippings and photos of the old clubhouse, which still stands today as a private residence in its original location.

Cousin said the library will hold a special event each month in 2012 to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Library officials have also partnered with the Moorpark Historical Society to gather information and artifacts about the library’s past.

“This whole year has been a real group effort,” Cousin said. “We’ve had a committee, including active members of the Friends of the Library and the Moorpark Library Board, working since last year to put together these activities.”

A community center

Alice Graham, wife of Ventura County Judge E.C. Graham, was a founding member of MWFC and the town’s first librarian.

“She compiled the collection,” Cousin said. “And at the time, the club would make a list of everything that was in the library and publish it in the local newspaper.”

While many libraries were being built across the United States in the early 1900s with the help of grants from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, Moorpark’s library was established entirely by the community, Cousin said.

“ This is really a people’s library,” she said. “This was something that the people of the community decided was important enough that they founded it, funded it and maintained it. And it’s just continued to grow and blossom ever since.”

According to Cousin, MWFC controlled the Moorpark library until 1916, when it joined a relatively new county system and moved to a building on High Street where it stayed until 1966.

For about 50 years, the library was known as the Moorpark branch of the Ventura County and City Library. It then moved up and down to different storefronts on High Street as the collection grew.

It wasn’t until 1981 that the library found its present home on Moorpark Avenue, Cousin said.

Since then the building has undergone two expansions, with a third major expansion— to more than double the facility— planned for later this year.

In the last century, the Moorpark library has undergone several changes in management— the most recent in 2007 when the city decided to pull out of the county system and hire Library Systems and Services LLC to operate the facility.

Still, the library has not lost its roots as a community center.

Hazel McCord, today’s vice president of MWFC, said the club is still one of the library’s top supporters.

“We’ve always supported it and we always will,” she said. “That was a main focus of our club when it started and it still continues to be.”

Every year the club holds its biggest fundraiser—a food booth—at the Moorpark Civil War Reenactment. All the money raised during that fundraiser goes toward local scholarships and supporting the library, Mc- Cord said.

“I think libraries are a very important part of the community,” McCord said. “ I think because of all the reading material it offers, the wonderful reading programs, and even the computers—(the library) has kept up with the times and it’s so important to help our children with their education.”

Hunt for history

Library officials and supporters have been piecing together bits of the library’s history in anticipation of its centennial celebration this year, Cousin said.

“The ultimate goal, as far as the historical side of the celebration, is to really develop that local history collection, so we can have a repository, not just for this series of events but for the next 100 years and the next generation,” the librarian said.

Cousin said the library is “putting out the call” for any information and artifacts—such as antique library cards, books from old collections, and genealogies— that may offer some perspective on the old town and the library’s past.

“ We have a very exciting history and I think that exciting history leads into a really great future,” Cousin said.

For more information about the Moorpark City Library and its 100th anniversary celebration, call (805)517-6370.