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1903 - The Ladies Club of Benicia asked the Board of City Trustees to apply for an Andrew Carnegie grant. There were 375 citizens clustered around the railroad and industries.

1904 - The City Council agreed to submit the grant and conditions of acceptance to a vote of the people. The only obligation was for the city to agree to fund the library and find a suitable site. For some reason the election was never held and Benicia is one of the few towns in the country to refuse a Carnegie grant.

1906 - Again the Ladies Club demanded action from City Hall. 

1910 - A two-room library in the old Capitol (then City Hall) was finally established. The first head librarian was Neil Scannell.

1948 - The Benicia Ladies Club again began to push for an improved library. Later that year, the first Library Board of Trustees in 42 years was appointed to begin planning a way to fund a new library and find a suitable site.

The Library Board found money from property taxes to build and operate a free library. They collected the $26,735 necessary to build a new library.

Edna Clyne agreed to donate the garden next to her house on G Street for a public library.

1955 - One year before the library was to open, the State Capitol was declared unsafe. The library had to vacate and moved to 813 First Street temporarily.

1956 - On April 9th, the new library opened its doors with 7,000 volumes. The head librarian was Lenoir Miller.

1984 - Head Librarian Lillian Alves retired. The Benicia Library Board of Trustees hired Susan Firestein Hildreth.

• Library modernized by joining the North Bay Cooperative Library System, enabling citizens to acquire interlibrary loan books.
• Library cards were instituted.
• Bookmobile service was tried.
• Children’s Librarian was hired to establish better library services to children.
• Friends of the Library organization was set up.
• Plans were begun for a new library.

1985 - The Board of Library Trustees hired a former Solano County Librarian to write a Building Program Statement.

1987 - Architect Frants Albert was selected to do a site study. The site at East L Street and the Eunice Jensen Park was selected as the site for the new library.

Benicia Library Literacy Program was initiated.

1988 - Carol Starr was hired as the Library Director to replace Susan Hildreth.

1991 - Grant application for the new library was submitted and accepted. The Library received a $4.7 million grant. City Council funded the $2 million matching funds. December 29th groundbreaking occurred.

The Library joined with Solano and Napa counties, St. Helena, and Napa Community College to form the SNAP Consortium and an integrated automation system for circulation, catalog, acquisitions and magazine inventory control was started.

1991 - City of Benicia made the Literacy Program Coordinator a full time, regular employee.

Families for Literacy Program began.

1992 - Benicia Public Library started circulating materials on the SNAP system along with a magazine index and an encyclopedia.

1993 - June 19th, the new library opened.

English As A Second Language Program began with funds raised by the Program’s annual Trivia Bee.

1994 - A $32,000 grant was awarded by the Federal Department of Education to hire professional staff to further develop the ESL classes and tutoring program.

1995 - A Volunteer Coordinator was hired to assist the library in recruiting and training volunteers.

1998 - Monique le Conge named the new Library Director. Measure B, a 1/8-cent sales tax ballot measure passed by more than a 2/3 vote in June, supplementing Solano County library budgets for new and expanded services. Tax in place for 16 years.

2000 - The Library now has 13 full-time and 10 part-time employees. There are also 8 pages and 12 on-call employees. Over 50 volunteers compliment the staff. Last year the library circulated 315,325 items, an increase of 9.1% over 1999!

2003 - Benicia Library celebrated its 10th Birthday for the new building with ceremonies, contests, and entertainment.

2004 - Monique le Conge resigned and Daveta Cooper became the Interim Director.

2005 - Diane Smikahl named the new Library Director.

2007 - Plans were started to expand the library into the basement.

2010 - Library celebrates 100 years of service in Benicia.

updated 8/4/10