MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown’s Gibson Library has a sibling – the Montclair Branch of the Oakland Public Library.
The Montclair Branch Library displays the Storybook architecture common in that part of Oakland, but the interior bears similarities to Middletown’s Mission-style library.
The libraries share an L-shaped floor plan, an open beamed ceiling, a fireplace, a large picture window and the odd interior shingled ledge over the window. The libraries are the offspring of one man’s charity to the communities where he lived.
Renowned library benefactor Andrew Carnegie made his money in steel; lesser-known library benefactor Chauncey W. Gibson made his money in banking, soap and carbon dioxide.
Carnegie donated more than 2,500 hundred libraries in the United States and other countries; Gibson donated three libraries in Northern California. Middletown doesn’t have a Carnegie Library, but it does have a Gibson.
Chauncey Walstein Gibson was born in 1838 in Grand Blanc, Michigan, to Charles and Artemisia Gibson.
As a young man, Gibson migrated to Southern California, where he began his business empire. He succeeded in several enterprises, including building 32 carbon dioxide factories around the country.
After he retired Gibson devoted himself to charity. The deaths of his son Houdd in 1919 and his wife Lovina in 1921 left him with no living immediate family, two other sons having died in childhood. He began to donate his extensive estate to benefit his hometown, Oakland, and his vacation home, Middletown.
In the 1920s Gibson donated his own home in Oakland to the Children’s Home Society and he donated another home for poor women in Oakland. In 1928 he donated Castle Hot Springs Resort, renamed Camp Houdd Gibson in memory of his son, near Middletown to the Salvation Army.
Gibson valued books and libraries, and favored them in his charitable contributions. Throughout the 1920s he donated thousands of dollars to buy books for various branch libraries in Oakland. More than 3,400 books from Houdd Gibson’s personal collection went to Oakland’s Melrose branch library, and in 1929 more books from Houdd’s collection seeded Middletown’s first library, which was dedicated on May 20, 1929.
Local organizations contributed funds to the Chauncey Gibson Library which opened in Middletown’s Justice Court building. By late September a library association had formed and Retta Reynolds was ensconced at the librarian’s desk.
Not content with donating books and money to libraries, Gibson progressed to building libraries. Thanks to Chauncey Gibson’s generosity, both Oakland and Middletown received funds to build libraries just as the Great Depression struck.
In early November, 1929, Chauncey Gibson offered to fund the construction of a permanent library building in Middletown, if the citizens would provide the land.
The newly-formed Middletown Luncheon Club began a search for property and in December “The Gibsons” (probably Chauncey Gibson and other relatives from the Bay Area) selected a site at the corner of Calistoga and Callayomi streets. Construction began in January and the library was finished in the spring.
Townspeople elected Irene Liquorish, “Sim” Chapman, L.J. Gamble, Fannie Poston, William Abercrombie, Robert Cannon and Ed Runyon, with alternates Cora Herrick, Harry Sandahl and James Reese as the first library board of directors in April, 1930.
Middletown residents attended the dedication of the permanent Chauncey W. Gibson Library en masse over the first weekend in May 1930. Heavy rain forced some events indoors, but did not prevent two days of festivities including a grand ball, a concert and dedication exercises in the Middletown pavilion.
The Salvation Army band traveled from Lytton Springs in Sonoma County for the occasion. Charles W. Fisher of the Oakland library board represented Chauncey Gibson and spoke about Mr. Gibson’s many charitable causes.
Chauncey Gibson died in June 1930 and was buried in Grand Blanc, Michigan, beside his wife Lovina and their three sons.
Gibson had planned to set up an endowment fund to maintain and support the Middletown library, but he died before accomplishing that task. The library suffered for that lack for many years and the townspeople worked hard to support it.
Community organizations including the Native Daughters of the Golden West (NDGW), the Social Seniors (also called the “Over 60 Club”) and the Middletown Luncheon Club funded the library with concerts, teas, card parties and other events.
In the middle 1950s, the Over 60 Club agreed to pay for utilities and insurance, to maintain the grounds and to keep the library open one day a week in exchange for meeting space. The library’s board of trustees managed to raise money to replace the library’s leaky roof in 1960.
The Middletown Library participated in the state-run, federally-funded Lake County Library Demonstration Project which operated 1971-74. The Library Project installed many new books and a telephone in the library. Under the Library Project, paid employees replaced the NDGW volunteers who had run the library.
In 1974 Middletown joined the newly-established Lake County Library system. The county of Lake assumed the burdens of funding all public libraries in Lake County, but that has not guaranteed vast amounts of money.
All county services suffered drastic cuts and library hours were reduced at all branches following the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Periodic bad economic times have limited the Gibson Library’s funding over the years, but the county’s careful fiscal management has kept the library open through the hard times.
In 2000 volunteers and the county working together created a children’s room in a back room of the library. Public computers with Internet access were installed in the Gibson Library in the same year. The Lake County Library system automated in 2001, which allows access to the online catalog shared among Lake, Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
Library supporters formed the Friends of the Middletown Gibson Library in 2000 to celebrate the library’s 70th anniversary, to raise money for the library and to publicize the library. This active organization continues to provide valuable assistance for Middletown’s library with money earned from book sales.
Middletown’s historic library is showing its age, and with an increasing population and expanding library services, the too-small library is being replaced.
The county of Lake began preparing in 2000 for a new library. The Kappe and Du architectural firm of San Rafael designed the building that will house both the new library and a new senior center at 21256 Washington St. Construction began in September 2011 and is nearly complete.
Opening day ceremonies are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, April 12.
With Middletown’s new library opening soon, the future of the Gibson Library remains uncertain. The Montclair library is still operating, but Oakland’s other Gibson Library is now a day care center.
Time will tell if Chauncey Gibson’s gift to Middletown may one day have a second career.
Acknowledgements
The Lake County Library’s collection of microfilmed local newspapers provided much information for this story.
The Oakland Library’s Oakland History Room contributed information about Chauncey Gibson and his Oakland philanthropic ventures.
The Web site of the Friends of the Oakland Public Library has more history of the Montclair branch; http://www.fopl.org/wordpress/?page_id=90 .
Harry Gibson, Chauncey Gibson’s great-great nephew, contributed some genealogical information and Chauncey’s portrait.
Jan Cook has lived in Lake County for about 40 years. She works for the Lake County Library, is the editor of the Lake County Historical Society's Pomo Bulletin and is a history correspondent for Lake County News. If you have questions or comments please contact Jan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .