On November 11, 1949, the Lake City Library moves from the school basement it has occupied for the past 12 years into the new fire station located a block north. The fire commissioners permit the library to use their meeting room until a more suitable location can be found. At the time the Lake City neighborhood in northeast Seattle is part of unincorporated King County and the library is operated by the King County Rural Library District, later known as the King County Library System (KCLS). Four years later, residents of the North End will vote to be annexed to the city of Seattle, and in 1955 the Seattle Public Library will take over operation of the Lake City library and move the branch into a newly opened bank building.
The Lake City Library had been located at the Lake City School on E 125th Street (later NE 125th Street) since it was first established in 1935 under the auspices of the Pacific Improvement Club. The club, a community group, had that year organized a committee headed by Minnie Lyon to establish a free lending library. The three members of the committee initially arranged for the library share a portion of a classroom in the Lake City School with the Works Progress Administration. Husbands of committee members built bookshelves. The library was open one day a week and loaned out books donated by members of the community. In 1937, the library moved into its own space in the school basement.
In 1942 King County voters approved formation of the King County Rural Library District, later known as the King County Library System (KCLS), and on February 4, 1944, the Lake City library became part of KCLS. KCLS provided a professional librarian and more books, but the library remained in the school basement, which it had already occupied for seven years, for another five years, until a new fire station opened a block north on 30th Avenue E (later 30th Avenue NE). The fire commissioners allowed the library to use their meeting room in the new station until a proper location could be found, and on November 11, 1949, the library moved from the school basement into the fire commissioners' meeting room.
On January 4, 1954, pursuant to a vote the preceding fall, the entire North End -- stretching north from Seattle's previous northern boundary at 85th Street to 145th Street, and from Puget Sound east to Lake Washington, became part of the city of Seattle. This brought the Lake City Library within the boundaries of the Seattle Public Library, although KCLS continued to operate the Lake City branch for another year. On January 6, 1955, the library officially became a branch of the Seattle Public Library, and on April 15, 1955, the Lake City Branch moved into 2,200 square feet of custom-built space in the newly built Shoreline Savings and Loan building on NE 125th Street.
