"In going back over the record, one may say, indeed, that the San Marino Library was built either by readers or by individuals who perceived the merit in reading." So writes Carol Nunn, in her history San Marino Library: 1915-1959.

This public spirit helped to found a library for San Marino over ninety years ago. When the City incorporated in 1913, Henry E. Huntington loaned his Mayberry house, on the corner of Oak Knoll and Monterey Road, to the new town to serve as school and city hall. Edna S. Rees (1883-1963), wife of Walter B. Rees, the San Marino's first city clerk, had the habit of taking the Pacific Electric streetcar into Los Angeles to borrow books from the Los Angeles County Free Library. With help from her library contacts downtown, Mrs. Rees established a branch of the county library in the Mayberry house in 1915. Although Rees was not a librarian, she managed the collection of 568 books, opening the library on Wednesdays during business hours.