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1889–1896
The opening: The room, the books and the money were supplied by the city's industrialists. James Oliver — of the Oliver Chilled Plow Works — "came to the rescue and fitted up a room on the fourth floor of the Oliver Opera House building and loaned the necessary money," the 1920 account records; "the Singer Manufacturing Company furnished the chairs." There, on the fourth floor of the opera house, the South Bend Public Library opened to the public in 1889. Its first head librarian was Evelyn Humphreys, appointed in 1889 and serving until 1903, per the library's published history. The young library's surviving artifact is a borrower's card of 1894, which the library still reproduces in its history: with it, patrons could borrow books for one week, and renew once for the same period. Within six years the opera-house room was too small, and the school board went looking for ground.
Sources:
- Brown, The Story of South Bend (1920), ch. XIV — James Oliver's fitted room and loan; the Singer chairs; the opening to the public.
- St. Joseph County Public Library, "History of the St. Joseph County Public Library" — Humphreys's appointment and tenure; the opera-house opening; the 1894 borrower's card and its one-week rule.