On August 9, 1970, after nearly half a decade in the making, the King County Library System's Newport Way Library is dedicated in Bellevue's Eastgate neighborhood. The attractive, 8,025-square-foot building, nestled in a quiet, wooded, park-like setting at 14250 SE Newport Way, has high-beamed ceilings, large alcove windows, and carvings on its interior brick walls. At its opening the library offers 24,000 books (soon increased to 30,000), 700 phonograph records, a children's reading area, and a conference room that seats 50. An expansion completed in 2011 will enlarge the library to 8,690 square feet.
The Journey Begins
As Bellevue's Eastgate neighborhood developed in the 1950s and 1960s, its residents began asking for a library. In 1964 the Eastgate Community Club created a library committee, chaired by Leif Bjorseth, to begin taking the steps needed to bring a library to Eastgate. The committee drafted recommendations for a library, and the recommendations were incorporated into a library-location plan prepared by the King County Library System (KCLS) in 1965.
In 1966 the process accelerated. Early that year area resident Charles Hutchins donated an acre of land, located between SE Newport Way and SE Allen Road at approximately 136th NE, for a new library. In May 1966 the newly formed Newport Way Library Association was incorporated and moved forward with planning for a library. (Not surprisingly, Leif Bjorseth was named the association's first president.) A KCLS bond issue approved that November provided funding for construction of the Newport Way Library, among others.
Within a few months there was talk that building would begin in the autumn of 1967. Then problems arose. First planners discovered the county had a right-of-way through the property. Hutchins donated more land on the site, but in 1968 it was discovered that the soil wasn't suitable for construction.
Fortunately, in February 1969 the Aldersgate United Methodist Church, located at 14230 SE Newport Way in Bellevue, approved the sale of two acres of its property to KCLS. There were no problems with this new site, and since it was twice as large as the first one, the library could be bigger than the 5,000-square-foot, 20,000-book library that originally had been planned. By late spring plans had been drawn up for a bigger, better library. It was designed by Fred Bassetti & Company, giving it a little cachet: Fred Bassetti (1917-2013) was a highly-regarded Seattle architect who designed a number of buildings in Seattle and throughout the state.
A New Library at Last
The construction contract was awarded to Larry Ollas Construction Company of Renton and work began in September 1969. By July 1970 the 8,025-square-foot brick building was finished, and librarians began stocking books -- 24,000 in all, though this wasn't all of the books slated for the library. Some books hadn't yet arrived from the publisher, while others, mostly reference books, had been ordered at the last minute so the library would have the most-current versions on hand. Within a year of its opening the library had 30,000 books, about one-third of them children's titles.
The library was dedicated in a pleasant ceremony on Sunday, August 9, 1970, and opened to the public the next day. The building had high-beamed ceilings and large alcove windows with padded chairs, and it offered a children's reading area, 700 records, and a conference room capable of seating 50. The library was initially open 46 hours a week, and it was staffed by six employees. Nancy Barevics was the first head librarian, and she was assisted by Jerene Rutherford, children's librarian. The remaining four staffers were clerical employees.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing things about the Newport Way Library's new building was the art on its interior brick walls. Sculptor Richard Beyer (1925-2012) -- who would later design the famous sculpture Waiting for the Interurban that's located in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood -- carved a series of artistic brick sculptures that appeared at various levels throughout the building. These included women chasing a wolf, a man riding a whale, and perhaps the most noteworthy one, a carving of what appeared to be a man bursting through the library's eastern wall about 10 feet above the floor. Nancy Barevics remarked to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer shortly before the dedication that "It's almost as though he was trying to crash into the building to seek knowledge from our books" ("Newport Way Library Inviting").
