THE city of milwaukie LEDDING LIBRARy

Milwaukie, Oregon

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

In 2018, the City of Milwaukie hired Peter Meijer Architect, PC to assist in the historic documentation process for the new construction proposed at the historic Ledding Library. My role as preservation planner in this project was to research the history of the library and write the historic documentation that was submitted to the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. 

Although the existing Ledding Library is a single building, it contains two significant resources that each play a role in the history of Milwaukie. The original Ledding House, architect or builder unknown, was constructed in 1910 in a Prairie School farmhouse style of architecture. It served as a single-family residence until 1964 when it was incorporated in the design for the Ledding Library. Boyd Jossy designed the new library in the International Style of architecture and included the original house as administrative office space on the northern end of the facility.

The 2018 development proposed at the Ledding Library consists of the complete demolition of the existing building, including the 1910 house that was donated to the City by Florence Ledding and its later library additions, to make way for the construction of a new library facility. The existing Ledding Library is located in downtown Milwaukie, Oregon at the northeastern corner of SE 21st Avenue and SE Harrison Street, kitty-corner to Milwaukie City Hall. 

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

The history of the Ledding Library is a story of Milwaukie’s compelling passion for education and community effort to cultivate a public library, with the famous Luelling pioneer family at its forefront. Efforts to establish a library date back to Milwaukie’s early history when Alfred Luelling founded a circulating library in 1889. Books were stored in the law office of Thomas Lakin, Justice of the Peace, at the corner of Main and Washington Streets until the building burned down after only a few months of library service. 

A second attempt in 1910 led an interested party of community members to meet with City Council, obtaining permission to convert a room in the old City Hall for library use. Books from this library were later donated to the new grammar school when it was completed in 1916. 

Traveling book stations were then supplied by the Oregon State Library and circulated in a few Milwaukie homes until 1926 when the Perry family agreed to provide space for the library in their pharmacy. Members of the community helped to build bookshelves, SERA funds were used to hire a librarian, and the Oregon State Library donated approximately two hundred additional books.

In 1934, the library was moved to the Council Chamber in the old City Hall building. Dorothy M. Winters was hired as the first official city librarian in 1935, and the first Library Board was appointed in 1936. The library was then moved again when the new City Hall building was completed in 1937, and Ruth Smith was hired as the city’s second librarian in 1940. Many individuals and groups contributed money, books, and service to the library in its initial years of establishment. As a result, Friends of the Milwaukie Library formed in 1952 to represent the various volunteer groups, including the PTA, that provided services to the library.

In 1961, Florence Olson Ledding passed away and bequeathed her property, collection of books, and a $5,000 fund for new books to the City of Milwaukie. She asked that her home be reconstructed into the “Ledding Library” as a memorial to herself and her late husband, Herman Ledding. With the help of a successful $150,000 bond measure, the Ledding home and property became the present-day library for an already well-established history of library development.

FLORENCE LEDDING

Florence had moved to Milwaukie, Oregon with her mother Sophronia Vaughn Olson in 1881. She studied law at the University of Oregon, taught school, and then passed the Oregon bar exam. She was the first woman in the United States to be appointed as referee in bankruptcy court and one of the state’s first female attorneys. She was also the first secretary of Oregon’s Democratic Legislative League, and owner and operator of the Clackamas County Independent local newspaper for a period of time. As such, Florence was a very progressive and politically active person who supported an equal right to an education for all. She willed her property to the City of Milwaukie with the request that the library be used for “the furtherance and advancement of education, learning, literature and science […] for the use and benefit of all people, regardless of race, age, station in life, color, sex or religious faith”. 

Alfred Luelling, son of the famous Oregon pioneer orchardist Henderson Luelling, was Florence Ledding’s step-cousin. Henderson’s brother and business partner, Seth Lewelling—who changed the spelling of his surname later in life—married Florence’s mother after their arrival to Milwaukie. Seth Lewelling had acquired a portion of the Lot Whitcomb Donation Land Claim that was part of the original plat for the City of Milwaukie, from Lot Whitcomb’s daughter, Wilhelmina Whitcomb. In 1924, Florence inherited this land, known as Lewelling Park, that included the existing library lot from her stepfather.

In the end, the land that Florence Ledding bequeathed to the City of Milwaukie in 1961 had belonged to at least two separate pioneer families, the Luelling and Whitcomb families, that had each played a significant role in the development of the city at different points in time. Furthermore, Florence’s specific request that her property become a library to support the growth of public education in the city is a representation of the legacy that the Luelling family left behind in the development of Milwaukie.

SIGNIFICANCE

The 1910 portion of the library retains little integrity. All Prairie School style features that may have represented a significant period of architectural construction in Milwaukie have been removed. However, the Ledding Library itself played a significant role in the growth and cultural appreciation of education in Milwaukie. The story of its original construction and subsequent additions speak for the large ongoing community effort to establish a library in Milwaukie that occurred prior to 1964.

Therefore, considering both the remaining integrity of the original house and the more predominant 1964 addition, the Ledding Library is considered eligible/significant under Criterion B in association with the lives of significant person, U.S. attorney Florence Ledding, stepdaughter of the famous pioneer Seth Lewelling. The library is also remembered for the significant educational contribution that it bestowed upon the city of Milwaukie.