Kaua‘i’s first library was founded in Lihu‘e by pastor Rev. John Mortimer Lydgate in 1900 in the Sunday school rooms of the old Lihue Union Church, where the Lihue United Church now stands. The library’s first books were donated by
Kaua‘i’s first library was founded in Lihu‘e by pastor Rev. John Mortimer Lydgate in 1900 in the Sunday school rooms of the old Lihue Union Church, where the Lihue United Church now stands.
The library’s first books were donated by Lydgate from his large personal library and Lydgate’s many friends supplemented these books with donations of their own.
Lydgate’s Sunday school library was operated on a very informal basis. Church volunteers would sometimes staff it, but oftentimes people would simply come in to charge out and return books on their own.
A familiar sight around Lihu‘e in those early horse and buggy days was a surrey loaded with books drawn by an old white mare — Kaua‘i’s first traveling library, a service of the library.
In 1921, the library’s growing book collection was temporarily housed in the old Mokihana Hall, which was located where Lihue Chevron is now.
Three years later, in 1924, the collection was moved again, this time into permanent quarters, the newly constructed Albert Spencer Memorial Building on Rice Street, which was financed by a gift of $75,000 given by Mrs. Albert Spencer Wilcox as a memorial to her late husband.
The Kaua‘i Public Library’s 1925 first annual report listed 1,721 registered borrowers and a circulation of 31,518 in the main library. Ten book deposit stations had been set up in outlying towns and all island schools received large collections twice yearly.
During World War Two the library partnered with the Army to send a bookmobile to troops stationed in out-of-the-way places all over the island. Branches opened in Waimea and Hanapepe in 1950. Five years later, Kapa‘a had its own library. The Lihu‘e library moved to Hardy Street in 1969 and in 1976, the Koloa library opened, followed by Princeville in 1999.
