Gresham Library

The building occupied by the library was constructed in 1989 and opened in January 1990.[2] It replaced a 1913 Tudor style building at 410 N. Main Street, which had been a Carnegie library.[3] The new building was paid for by a $2.1 million fund-raising campaign designed in part by then-Governor Neil Goldschmidt, including $1.7 million serial levy approved by Multnomah County voters in 1987 and a projected $200,000 from the sale of the original building.[2][4] Following the levy, three attempts to buy suitable property that could be developed within the $1.7 million approved had failed by mid-1988, leading to the consideration of several more expensive options.[5]

The new building is 13 times the size of the original library,[2] and was designed as a "superbranch" to "usher in a new era in library services in both Gresham and the entire county system."[4] Upgrades included a computer lab/media center, a community room, a teen study area, a children's room, a conference room, skylights, and a tower to help it blend in with the surrounding shopping center.[4]

With space for 75,000 volumes, the 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m²) library building was designed as the Multnomah County system's second-largest, behind Portland's Central Library.[4] The original library building was purchased by the Gresham Historical Society, which turned it into a museum as well as housing its main headquarters there.[3]