55 YEARS AGO: AUG. 28, 1971
By David Miller
OLATHE, Kan. — On Saturday, Aug. 28, 1971, Olathe residents walked into a former downtown bank building and found something they hadn’t come there for before: books.
More than 30,000 volumes had been moved from the city’s longtime Carnegie Library on North Chestnut Street to the former Patrons State Bank and Trust Company building at 125 S. Cherry St.
The move marked a new chapter for the Olathe Public Library, which had outgrown its Carnegie-era home as the city continued to expand.
A photograph published in the Aug. 28, 1971, edition of The Daily News of Johnson County captured the new library just as it was preparing to open.
In the photograph, Terri Wollen sits reading a magazine while Mark Crane reads nearby. A round table between them is covered with newspapers and periodicals. Behind them, shelves are already filled with books.
The newspaper’s caption was simple: “Ready to open…”
There was no ribbon-cutting ceremony in the photograph, no crowd of dignitaries and no elaborate celebration. Just two readers enjoying the new surroundings.
But behind that ordinary scene was a considerable undertaking.
MORE THAN 30,000 BOOKS HAD TO BE MOVED
For generations, Olathe’s public library had operated from the Carnegie building on North Chestnut Street.
With its brick exterior, broad stone steps and distinctive arched entrance, the building had become a familiar downtown landmark.
Children climbed its steps to find books for school assignments. Adults visited to read newspapers, conduct research or borrow the latest novels. Families returned year after year, sometimes across generations.
By 1971, however, the library was running out of space.
Olathe’s population was growing, and the collection had expanded beyond what the old building could comfortably accommodate.
Rather than construct a new library, the Library Board purchased the former Patrons State Bank and Trust Company building at 125 S. Cherry St. for $175,000.
The bank had relocated, leaving a building that could be converted for public library use.
The arrangement was unusual but practical. A downtown building that had once housed financial transactions would now serve residents looking for books, newspapers and information.
Preparing the property required more than simply moving books into an empty bank.
New shelving was installed, carpeting was laid, furniture was brought in and reading areas were arranged.
The library closed for approximately a week while workers transferred more than 30,000 books from North Chestnut Street to South Cherry Street.
The collection included reference materials, children’s books, novels, biographies, periodicals and other resources that had served Olathe residents for years.
When the doors opened Aug. 28, the newspaper described the renovated building as offering “spacious quarters.”
It was a significant improvement for a library that had struggled with limited room in its previous location.
A BANK MOVED OUT, AND A LIBRARY MOVED IN
There was an interesting coincidence surrounding the opening.
On the same Saturday that Olathe residents began using the former Patrons State Bank building as their new library, Patrons State Bank was celebrating the grand opening of its own new facilities elsewhere in the city.
The two institutions were beginning new chapters on the same day.
The library’s move also reflected the practical approach Olathe was taking to accommodate its growth.
Instead of waiting for an entirely new facility to be constructed, the community adapted an existing downtown building for a different public purpose.
For the next eight years, the former bank served as Olathe’s public library.
Residents came to South Cherry Street to browse the shelves, study, read newspapers and borrow books.
But the city’s growth soon presented the same challenge that had forced the library out of its Carnegie building.
The new quarters were becoming too small.
BY 1979, THE LIBRARY WAS MOVING AGAIN
Eight years after opening in the former bank, the library relocated to a new downtown facility at 201 E. Park St.
The building opened in 1979 and would serve generations of Olathe residents over the following decades.
For many longtime residents, the East Park Street location became the library they remember most clearly.
It was where children attended story times, students researched school projects and families made regular trips to borrow books.
The building also witnessed enormous changes in how libraries operated.
Card catalogs eventually gave way to computerized systems. Public computers and internet access became part of library services. Digital resources expanded what residents could access without ever visiting a building.
The library itself continued to evolve as Olathe grew.
Eventually, the East Park Street building also reached the end of its service. The library closed, and the building was later demolished as part of the continuing transformation of downtown Olathe.
Today, the city’s Downtown Library operates from a modern facility at 260 E. Santa Fe St., offering services and technology that would have been difficult to imagine in 1971.
A PHOTOGRAPH FROM ANOTHER OLATHE
The 1971 newspaper photograph offers a reminder of how much has changed — and how much has remained familiar.
Terri Wollen and Mark Crane are seated in a room without computers, smartphones or internet access.
Their reading materials are printed. The shelves are wooden. Newspapers and magazines occupy the table between them.
Yet the activity itself would be recognizable to anyone visiting an Olathe library today.
They are reading.
The buildings have changed repeatedly over the past 55 years. The collection has grown, technology has transformed library services, and the city surrounding those buildings has expanded dramatically.
But the purpose has remained much the same: providing residents with access to books, information and a place to learn.
The move on Aug. 28, 1971, was one of several times Olathe had to find a larger home for its public library.
From the Carnegie building on North Chestnut Street to the former bank on South Cherry Street, then to East Park Street and eventually to today’s Downtown Library, each relocation reflected a community whose needs were changing.
And for eight years beginning in 1971, one of Olathe’s most important public institutions operated in a building originally designed to hold something entirely different.
A former bank became a place where the most valuable things were no longer kept behind a counter or inside a vault.
They were lined up on shelves, waiting for someone to take them home.
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