The Children's Library

Many cities have children's rooms inside a main library. Palo Alto has had a whole building for its children since 1940. The Children's Library sits on Harriet Street behind the Lucie Stern Community Center, a short walk from Middlefield Road and Rinconada Park. It has a red tile roof, a fireplace ringed with nursery rhyme characters, low shelves sized for small hands and a walled garden out back. Generations of local families have done their first story hours there.

This page covers the building's history. For today's hours, cards and programs across all five branches, see our guide to Palo Alto libraries.

Before 1940: a library for adults

Palo Alto's public library is older than the Children's Library by four decades. The city hired its first librarian in 1899. A Carnegie library paid for with a $10,000 grant opened downtown on November 1, 1904. It was expanded twice and finally torn down in 1967 to make room for the current City Hall. The 1936 College Terrace branch, designed by Charles K. Sumner, is the oldest library building the city still uses.

Children had shelves in those buildings, but no space of their own. In the 1930s that began to change thanks to one donor.

Lucie Stern's gift

Lucie Stern (1871 to 1946) was the widow of Louis Stern, a nephew and business partner of Levi Strauss. She moved to Palo Alto, hired the young local architect Birge Clark to design houses for herself and her daughter Ruth and became the city's most generous benefactor of the 1930s. She paid for the community center on Middlefield Road, the rooms where the Children's Theatre rehearses and other civic gifts. Locals called her the city's "fairy godmother." Her full story is on our Lucie Stern page.

In 1939 she offered $17,000 to build a library just for children, next to the community center. The offer did not go smoothly at first. According to the local history site PaloAltoHistory.org, one council member wanted her to endow the future cost of staffing the building as well. Stern withdrew the offer. The council later sent her a letter of apology and the gift went ahead.

Clark designed the building and formally presented it to the city on her behalf on September 14, 1940. Stern dedicated it to Ruth, her only surviving child. Several of her other children had died young, which makes a library for children an especially personal gift.

Birge Clark's design

Birge Clark was Palo Alto's leading architect between the wars and worked mostly in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The city library credits the building to Birge Clark and David Clark. Our Birge Clark page covers his career and our guide to Spanish Colonial Revival architecture explains the style.

The Children's Library is one of his smaller civic works and one of the most charming. Its features, as described by the city and by PaloAltoHistory.org:

• A hand-molded Mission tile roof in the same Spanish style as the community center next door.
• A fireplace surrounded by fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters, from Humpty Dumpty to Old King Cole. Story hours have gathered around it since the first year.
• Child-sized furniture. Mahogany shelves were built low so children could choose their own books. Tilted picture tables and chairs in three sizes fit readers of different ages.
• A Secret Garden. A brick-walled garden behind the building was modeled on the one in Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, with roses, arched trees and picnic tables.

Photos in the Palo Alto Historical Association's collection show children by the fireplace and reading at the low tables in 1940, much as they do now.

The "first" and "oldest" claim

The Palo Alto City Library describes the building as the oldest freestanding children's library in the country. A 2025 library blog post goes further and calls it the first freestanding library in the United States intended solely for children. At the 2025 reopening, Mayor Ed Lauing repeated the claim.

It is a proud local tradition and may well be true. Note the careful wording, though. Many older libraries had children's rooms or wings. The claim rests on the building being separate and built only for children. We have not found an independent national survey that confirms it, so treat it as the library's own description.

A brush with closure

By the late 1990s the building was showing its age. PaloAltoHistory.org reports that the city's Library Commission listed the Children's Library as a possible closure. One member pointed out that the original gift contract did not bar other uses for the building.

The community responded. An anonymous donor gave $175,000 to the Friends of the Palo Alto Library and promised another $200,000 if it was matched by year's end. The Palo Alto Library Foundation and the Friends went on to raise about $1.7 million from more than 1,300 donors toward renovating and expanding the building.

Renovations in 2007 and 2025

2005 to 2007: the first major renovation

In December 2005 the library closed for its first major renovation in 65 years. It reopened on September 29, 2007. The work added two wings with nearly 2,500 square feet for programs and collections. It also brought new computers, modern heating and cooling and a larger collection. The new Tree Top Room opens onto the renovated Secret Garden, where children can read by the fountain, the bird bath or the wishing well. The city describes the result as respectful of the building's heritage.

That timing matters. The renovation was finished before Palo Alto voters passed the $76 million Measure N library bond in November 2008. That bond paid for the new Mitchell Park Library and the rebuilding of the Main Library as Rinconada, along with work at the Downtown branch. The Children's Library's own makeover leaned heavily on private donors.

2025: a refresh

The building closed again in 2025 for a smaller update. Crews installed an automated materials handling system that sorts returns and circulates the children's collections of all the city's libraries, more than 45,000 items. The interior got new paint and carpet and the seating was reupholstered. The library reopened on June 24, 2025. A public celebration followed on September 13, 2025, with a puppet show in the Secret Garden. The mayor said the branch had hosted 260 programs with 29,000 visitors in the previous three years.

The Lucie Stern campus

The library is part of a cluster of Stern gifts that still works as one civic campus. The Lucie Stern Community Center faces Middlefield Road. The Palo Alto Children's Theatre, founded in 1932, performs in the same complex. Rinconada Park, its pool and the rebuilt Junior Museum and Zoo are a short walk away. A family can spend a whole day here without getting back in the car.

Visiting today

The Children's Library is open to everyone. You do not need a card to come in, read or play. In late October 2026 the library listed hours of Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. Check the Palo Alto City Library website before you go.

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