Gresham Library
# Gresham Library

The Gresham Library, also known as the Gresham Regional Library, is a branch of the Multnomah County Library in Gresham in the U.S. state of Oregon. The branch offers the Multnomah County Library catalog of two million books, periodicals and other materials.

## History

The building occupied by the library was constructed in 1989 and opened in January 1990. It replaced a 1913 Tudor style building at 410 N. Main Street, which had been a Carnegie library. 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. 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.

The new building is 13 times the size of the original library, and was designed as a "superbranch" to "usher in a new era in library services in both Gresham and the entire county system." 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.

With space for 75,000 volumes, the 20,000-square-foot (1,900 $m^2)$ library building was designed as the Multnomah County system's second-largest, behind Portland's Central Library. 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.

