Opawa Public Library History
The Original Building
The first suggestion of building a library in the Opawa area was discussed at a meeting of the Opawa-Hillsborough Burgesses' Association on 10 June 1929. Members arguments in favour of the library included that current residents had to "go far afield for their literature" and "Opawa is one of the oldest residential areas, but the last to be possessed of its own library."
Following this meeting the association contacted the Christchurch City Council for a sum to be placed on the estimates.
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This process was fairly slow and took multiple application renewals before any promises of funding were made.
In the meantime, Mr T. W. West of the Association negotiated with Mr A. W. Minson, one of the original residents of Opawa, who generously gifted them the corner site for their purpose.
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In 1935 the council finally granted funding to the library and the planning was approved in March. The city architect Mr V. Hean created the design pictured below which included space for up to 8,000 books, a reading room and a store room. This building was completed in May 1936.
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The Carnival
So now the community of Opawa had land, a building and a committee of volunteers but it was missing something fairly important... books!
A fundraising event was thus created in the form of a three day Carnival to be held at what was then known as Johnson's Picnic Gardens at 105 Clarendon Tce.
The Carnival was held in February 1936 and was a huge success, allowing the association to purchase the library's first set of books.
The organisers created a gazette to accompany the event which featured advertising from local businesses, editorials about the area and a list of events and activities which would be found at the carnival.
An original copy of the Opawa Public Library Gazette can be viewed online in the Christchurch City Library Archives.
It is a very interesting read with great advertisements from historic local businesses!
The Opawa Children's Library
In 1953 the Opawa Juvenile Library was established to accommodate the growing interest from young readers. The Juvenile Library (later known as the Children's Library) moved to it's long standing site at 1 Louisson Tce some time in the 1960's where it remained until August 2020 when the libraries merged back on the original Richardson Tce site.
The photo below shows members at the library's first anniversary.
The Earthquake
When Christchurch was hit with a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at 4.35am on the 4th September 2010 many buildings around the Opawa region suffered extensive damage. The Opawa Public Library was damaged beyond repair.
This was a devastating event and volunteers and members alike were worried this would be the end of our Public Library.
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Like many other buildings in Christchurch, the Opawa Library remained sealed off and untouched in it's damaged state for over 6 years.
On the 18th of March 2017 a group of fantastic volunteers from the library, the Opawa community and the Student Volunteer Army spent the day clearing everything from the building. Unfortunately, due to the conditions the books were in for those years, some were covered in mould and unable to be saved, but the rest were put into storage with the hopes that they could be shelved again someday.
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The photos below show some of our awesome volunteers during the "Opawa on the Move" clean out day.
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The Little Library by the River
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In March 2011 the Opawa Adult's and Children's libraries merged once again, this time combining in the Children's Library site at 1 Louisson Tce.
We are very greatful for the dedication and commitment of our valued members and volunteers during this time. The Children's Library, although small, provided a fantastic space for the libraries to continue the run and was filled with a lot of great memories and it was bittersweet to say goodbye to our little library on the river after almost 60 years of service.
The Rebuild
In March 2019 the rebuild officially began with the demolition of the original library building.
The rebuild was a contentious issue, however, the land had been gifted for the purpose of a public library and as such needed to retain this purpose. Credit for the rebuild goes to a team of dedicated volunteers who formed a rebuild committee and were led by Library President Marianne Field.
The build was also made possible with the support of Christchurch City Councillors who helped push the project through. It is with great sadness that Marianne passed away in January 2019 and was unable to see the building completed, however those who knew her know she would have loved the end result.
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The completed building is a beautiful new facility that is set to serve the community well into the future with the addition of a community room which is available for hire.
The new library incorporates a few homages to the original building to honor the library's history. These features include the front signage, which is cast from the original sign, the bronze dedication plate from the building's opening, the 'Reading Room' door, which is in the community room, and the mounted coat hooks from the original cloakroom.
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If you have any further information or memories regarding the Opawa Public Library, or have a friend or relation who has been involved with the library we would love to hear from you!
Please feel free to send any comments or information to our email address: opawapubliclibrary@gmail.com