Alameda County Law Library, Oakland

July 3, 2022 In Libraries

The Gothic Revival building at the corner of 12th and Oak streets in Oakland, California was built by William E. Schirmer, and Arthur S. Bugbee in 1924 for the Merguire-Ritchie Chevrolet car dealership. In 1933, the Lakeside Roof ballroom and roller skating rink was installed on the upper floor. In 1936, the dealership was taken over by the California Electric Motor Company.

Exterior view of the Alameda County Law Library in Oakland, California. The facade is whitewashed gothic revival arches, with large windows at street level and smaller windows on the upper two floors. Two persons on electric scooters are seen moving in front the building.
Electric scooters whiz by the 1924 Gothic Revival facade of the former Chevrolet dealership in downtown Oakland.
Interior of the Alameda County Law Library. View of the service desk at the centre of the library. A large sign reads "? Ask here". A worker is standing behind the desk.
The former car showroom is occupied by the Alameda County Law Library since 1995.

During WWII, the building was used as a reporting site for the internment of Japanese Americans. After the war it was subsequently a state employment office (1951) and a Western Union branch (1967) before being acquired in 1989 by the county law library that was by then located in the nearby courthouse.

Interior of the Alameda County Law Library. A person works at at desk next to a row of street-facing windows. Art adorns the wall.
The transformation was done by Robinson Mills + Williams (RMW) between 1989 and 1995.

Architects Robinson Mills + Williams of San Francisco were tasked with transforming the space for the library. Works were initially delayed by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but eventually the new library opened in 1995.

Interior of the Alameda County Law Library. Workspaces are on the left next to the windows, to the right are computer workstations and two levels of bookshelves.
The library primarily serves legal professionals but is open to the general public.

Today, the Alameda County Law Library remains dedicated to freely providing access to authoritative legal information to the public and law professionals alike. It is free and open to the public. The images displayed here were taken during my visit in 2019.

Image of two rows of oak bookshelves supporting law textbooks.

This post is part of a series on adaptive reuse in libraries. See the list of such projects I am maintaining or view other posts in this series.

References

  1. Alameda County Law Library. Oakland Wiki. Last updated March 29, 2019



Content note

Library detail pages are primarily a place for me to collect information I gather on the libraries I visit, and are frequently updated. None of this should be considered authoritative, I am not an architect, nor a historian. If you notice something incorrect, please let me know!



You might also like



Exterior of a Provençal house fronted by a formal garden.
Médiathèque d’Arles
June 22, 2023
Interior of a library in a converted wine store with prominent timber rafters. The modern elements are all coloured lime green and contrast sharply with the original timber elements. A woman is climbing a flight of stairs, in front of her is a level full of bookshelves.
Kantonsbibliothek Baselland, Liestal
June 18, 2023
Exterior of a modern brick industrial complex.
London Metropolitan Archives
May 5, 2023