![\"\u201cPostcard](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/web-Postcard_of_the_horse_and_buggy_era_Carnegie_Library_Building_San_Diego_Public_Library_early_1900s.jpg\")
<\/a>And the cost of mailing a letter went down by half, from six cents in 1863 to two cents in 1885. But the numbers don\u2019t tell the whole story. Reading and writing in this country changed qualitatively during the 19th century. Reading went from something you did in public, Sunday school or for moral edification to something you did in private, at home, at school and, of course, at the library.<\/p>\n
The public library was as essential for a civilized city as the bookcase was for the sophisticated household. In the late 19th century, Andrew Carnegie began endowing libraries around the country (he helped finance 174 in California alone).<\/p>\n
In 1902, San Diego got its own Carnegie library, a sturdy, studious, classically designed temple of learning that served the city until 1952, when it was torn down. Served might not be the right word: during that time the population went from 17,700 to 333,865. A replacement was completed in 1954, and among its improvements was an inner sanctum devoted to local history called the California Room.<\/p>\n
Local historians have had to do without the California Room since early summer while the new Central Library, which has been on the books, so to speak, for about 50 years, was being completed and fully stocked. On Sept. 30 the new and expanded California Room opened, along with the rest of the library.<\/p>\n
If your house has a built-in bookcase (or a patched floor in the living room where the bookcase once stood), the California Room should be your first stop when touring the facility. The room is in an exalted place \u2013 the penthouse suite of the nine-story building \u2013 and the view is stunning, particularly on a dry, clear, 85-degree day in early October.<\/p>\n
Even if you don\u2019t crack a book, you can look down on Grant Hill, Golden Hill, Barrio Logan and the eastern territories of Downtown, and contemplate this magical setting between sea and sky that enticed people from all over the world to chase the California dream to the edge of America.<\/p>\n
In light of all that, and in the spirit of our amazingly optimistic ancestors who reinvented themselves on these shores, I\u2019d hoped the California Room had been reinvented itself. I was somewhat disappointed.<\/p>\n
With progress, it\u2019s always one-and-a-half steps forward, one-and-a-quarter steps back. As a chagrined librarian admitted, the newspaper collection \u2013 essential for researching builders and homeowners \u2013 is now six floors down (in the old building, it was right next door). Floor space, however, looks to have quadrupled and the library itself is twice the size of its predecessor.<\/p>\n
There is now a lot more room to move around in, more tables to work on (and plug a laptop into), and more computers to use for research. The main addition, in the center of the room, is more genealogy texts, courtesy of the San Diego Genealogical Society.<\/p>\n