After a years-long effort to save Fullerton’s Hunt Branch Library, once a hub of the West Fullerton neighborhood where it is situated, the re-vamped Hunt is days away from re-opening.
The 60-year-old building on Basque Avenue, designated a local landmark in 2018 and placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2019, closed as a library branch in 2013 due to a variety of issues, most notably a lack of funding. But this weekend, a grand re-opening and ribbon cutting ceremony will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, featuring tours of the renovated space, live entertainment, food trucks and booths providing information on city services and other resources.
The building, recognizable by its flat roof and windowed façade, was designed by architect William Pereira and built with a $500,000 gift from the Hunt Foods and Industries Foundation.
Thanks to partnerships with local community groups, including the Fullerton School District, OC United and North Orange County Continuing Education, the re-vamped facility will offer a variety of community services, said Amanda Arbiso, the city’s parks and recreation manager. It will also resume offering some library services and will be available to rent for events.
City run programs for children will include the Little Learners Club, for toddlers ages 3 to 5; Art Around the Clock; Wonder Wednesdays for children of all ages; and Melody Starters, a four-week program providing beginning music instruction for kids.
Weekly exercise, health and wellness and personal development classes will also be offered along with tutoring for children.
“By having these partnerships, we’ll be able to provide a variety of different programs to assist with the physical and emotional health of our community and we’re very excited for all the different programming,” Arbiso said. “The main focus for all of our programming is to be free of charge or low cost to our local community.”
Two new gallery spaces are already displaying exhibitions.
The exhibition “Library Cool: Mid Century Design and the Hunt,” features vintage furniture that was custom made for the Hunt’s grand opening in 1962, along with documentary videos and historic photographs about the building, its architect and history.
“A Class Action: The Grassroots Struggle for School Desegregation in California” chronicles the story of the landmark case, Mendez et al. v. Westminster School District et al., demonstrating how community organizing and grassroots activism produced positive change in schools in the state. The case is considered a pre-curser to segregation case Brown v. Board of Education, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Upcoming scheduled events planned for the Hunt include a Dia del Nino event on April 27, a Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 5 and a Taylor Swift themed event on Aug. 9.
“Very exciting,” Mayor Nicholas Dunlap said at a recent City Council meeting of the activities already planned. “I’m sure my kids are watching and are very excited. They probably marked the calendar for the Taylor Swift thing already.”
Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who served on the Fullerton City Council at the time of the branch’s closure, said shuttering the library in 2013 was “devastating to that community that kind of quietly used it.”
The assemblywoman called the Hunt “a hidden gem,” not only because of its architecture but because of its location in a “very quiet, closed off area that not many people even know about in Fullerton, which is part of its beauty.”
In 2019, the Hunt was awarded a $2.5 million State Library Grant and then received $2.75 million as part of the 2021-22 state budget after Quirk-Silva and Sen. Josh Newman pushed for funds.
A Hunt Library Ad Hoc Committee sought proposals for possible uses of the Hunt for Literacy, arts, and cultural programs. After evaluating the proposals, the committee made recommendations to the City Council on the library’s revitalization. In June 2023, the City Council unanimously approved plans for the revitalization of the library.
The estimated cost of operating the library for the next three years is $481,000.
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