San Francisco Landmarks
The Sunset Carnegie Library was designed by architect Gustave Albert Lansburgh in the Classical Revival style. Lansburgh designed three other Carnegie branch libraries in San Francisco: Chinatown, Mission and Presidio.
Lansburgh drew two plans for the Sunset branch, one rectangular with interior stairs much like Mission and Noe Valley, the other octagonal. The octagonal was judged "quite impossible" and the other plan approved with slight revision.
In this version of the Classical Revival, the central entrance is recessed within a loggia formed by three tall round arches supported by two segmented Corinthian columns and two pilasters. Names of authors, many Western, are inscribed under the sills of recessed arched windows.
The Sunset branch was the fifth of seven Carnegie branch libraries built in San Francisco. All seven buildings still function as libraries (see map).
Some Carnegie Free Libraries in California
Alameda
Bayliss
Biggs
Colusa
Corning
Eureka
Ferndale
Gilroy
Grass Valley
Gridley
Hanford
Healdsburg
Hollister
Lincoln
Livermore
Lompoc
Nevada City
Oakland - 23rd Avenue Branch
Oakland - Alden Branch
Oakland - Golden Gate Branch
Oakland - Melrose Branch
Orland
Oroville
Oxnard
Paso Robles
Patterson
Petaluma
Riverbank
Roseville
Sacramento
San Francisco Chinatown Branch
San Francisco Golden Gate Valley Branch
San Francisco Mission Branch
San Francisco Noe Valley Branch
San Francisco Presidio Branch
San Francisco Richmond Branch
San Francisco Sunset Branch
San Luis Obispo
Santa Cruz (Garfield Park Branch)
South San Francisco
St. Helena
Some Other Carnegie Free Libraries in the West
The website Carnegie Libraries of California contains much information about these libraries.