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About the Tacoma Public Library

The Grace R. Moore Library

The 15,700 square foot Moore Library is a regional library serving Tacoma's South End communities. The elegant brick-clad building opened in 1989, and was funded through the 1984 passage of a $15.8 million Library Construction Bond. The new library replaced a much smaller 5,000 square foot library built in the early 1950s.
The Moore Library is home to the Adult Learning Center (a partnership with Tacoma Community House). For more information about the center call TCH at 383-3951. The Library also has an extensive collection of Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language materials, as well as the largest collection of Large Print books in the library system. Included in the Library's collection are more than 100,000 books, magazines, CDs, and videotapes. A large meeting room is available without charge for community meetings and events.
If visiting the library, be sure to view the stunning glass and copper sculptures by Seattle artist Nancy Mee (located in the west window of the Moore Branch). Ms. Mee's fused glass columns have been featured in galleries and museums throughout the United States.
Who is Grace Moore and why does she have a library named in her honor?
Coming to the pioneering community of Tacoma in 1884, Grace Moore missed the easy access to books she enjoyed in her native San Francisco. In 1886, Mrs. Moore led a group of 18 women to organize a circulating library in her South Tacoma home. The club’s charter members donated their personal collections of books and patrons paid 25 cents for the privilege of borrowing from the Puget Sound area’s first circulating library. Bachelors, wishing to use the home as a quiet place to read, paid fifty cents.
By 1893, the Mercantile Library, as the women called it, outgrew Mrs. Moore’s sitting room. its 2,000 volumes were given to the city for a free public library. The library was housed in a series of buildings in the downtown area until, in 1893, the library moved Into the city hall. Naming a library to honor the person whose dedication to reading resulted in the establishment of the Tacoma Public Library seemed only appropriate.