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 50 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.
