Exactly 110 years ago this spring — May 30, 1899, precisely — Anson Mills made an important notation in his diary assuring La Jolla a significant literary legacy. It read: “Miss Sawyer has promised to give the Library to us, and this evening we formed a Library Association and incorporated.” Such was the genesis of the La Jolla Public Library. The Miss Sawyer of reference was Florence Sawyer, a young woman who had come to La Jolla four years earlier accompanying an invalid in a wheelchair named Julia Hannah Spear. Upon Ms. Spear’s death and after her own marriage to a Los Angeles gentleman named John Bransby, Ms. Sawyer gifted the small but exquisitely furnished library and timely book collection to La Jolla posterity. For many years, it was a popular literary gathering place affectionately called The Reading Room at the corner of Girard Avenue and Wall Street (present site of the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library). In 1921, the building was moved to 7590 Draper Ave. and, only a few years ago, to The Bishop’s School campus where it has been restored to present-day use as a small meeting room. The Reading Room’s story has been told ad infinitum, but Ms. Sawyer and her origination of the library and her wanderings in La Jolla in the 1890s remain somewhat of an enigma. Who was the invalid lady she was traveling with? How did they arrive in La Jolla to stay as guests of the La Jolla Park Hotel, which burned to the ground in a mysterious fire in 1896? How and where did Ms. Sawyer acquire $1,000 worth of books, including some of the latest titles by Huxley, to furnish the library, not to mention a large upright piano and other fashionable furnishings for it? When the Misses Sawyer and Spear arrived in La Jolla, they appeared well-endowed traveling companions arriving most probably by carriage to be guests at “the queen of seaside resorts” offering “pleasant climate, balmy and invigorating sea air, beautiful wild flowers, curious shells, smooth beaches, wonderful caves, sea mosses and ferns of rare beauty, ocean gold fish visible every day of the year.” Perhaps, a bit bored by all the hotel offered, Sawyer and Spear gathered together with the ladies of the town and started a reading club. Sawyer also invested in real estate. On Aug. 26, 1895, she purchased a sizeable chunk of the original La Jolla Park subdivision, including the lot at Girard Avenue and Wall Street where she financed the building of the Reading Room. Upon completion, the little literary gem was furnished not only with books but a cook stove, carved wood tables and chairs, a Persian carpet, lace curtains and a cozy brick fireplace — all at Sawyer’s expense. It soon became a gathering place for everyone in the small community, including a Thanksgiving Day in 1898 when 60 people assembled for dinner. Card parties were held every Friday evening. As a lending library, it was open three times a week. Anson Mills assumed the position of librarian. Ms. Sawyer, in the meantime, had also purchased the Red Rest cottage (still remaining with the Red Roost on Coast Boulevard). On May 26, 1899, Ms. Sawyer married Mr. Bransby in Los Angeles. The couple spent part of their honeymoon at the Red Rest, and four days after the wedding, Ms. Sawyer announced her donation of the Reading Room to La Jolla. Ironically, she also disappeared from La Jolla history at that time forever. — “Reflections” is a monthly column written for the La Jolla Village News by the La Jolla Historical Society’s historian Carol Olten. The Society, dedicated to the preservation of La Jolla heritage, is located at 7846 Eads Ave. and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.