Harrison Memorial Library
The Harrison Memorial Library is a historic building designed by architect Bernard Maybeck and built by Michael J. Murphy in 1928. It houses a public library for the city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The library provides books, materials and programs that support the pursuit of education, information, recreation, and culture. It includes documents about the history and development of Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula. The Harrison Memorial Library was named after California Supreme Court Justice Ralph C. Harrison. History. In 1904, the Carmel Library began in a cottage at the beginning of the library movement . On October 12, 1922, after Ella Reid Harrison death, her estate financed a memorial to her husband, California Supreme Court Justice Ralph Chandler Harrison, for the purpose of establishing a public library. Four years later, in June 1927, the board of trustees of the Harrison Memorial Library started proceedings toward building the library. Her estate included rare books and a number of valuable art pieces for the library. The new library was designed by California architect Bernard Maybeck in a Spanish Eclectic style and built by Michael J. Murphy. The Harrison Memorial Library opened on March 31, 1928, in the  building on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Street, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. A $40,000 modernization was done in 1949 and a second remodeling in 1977. The library contains digital collections from the 1900s to the 2000s, genealogy tools, house & buildings collections, historical maps, searchable newspapers, and oral history interviews with Carmel residents. The digital collection includes photographs illustrating theater performances by the historic Forest Theater of Carmel, which was founded in 1910. Conservation plan. The city of Carmel has created a Downtown Conservation District plan to protect the historic buildings on Ocean Avenue. The Harrison Memorial  Library meets the selection criteria from criterion 1, which says: "Associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history or the cultural heritage of California or the United States." and criterion 3, which says: "Embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region or method of construction or represents the work of a master or possesses high artistic values."