The East Portland Branch, Public Library of Multnomah County housed part of the

library system A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are school, public, academic, special libraries and/or information centers. Consortia exist on a v ...

Multnomah County, Oregon Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

, from 1911 to 1967. Designed by architect

A. E. Doyle Albert Ernest Doyle (July 27, 1877 – January 23, 1928) was a prolific architect in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. He is most often credited for his works as A.E. Doyle. He opened his own architectural practice in 1907. From ...

, the structure was completed in 1911 in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

at 1110 Southeast Alder Street in the city's central eastside. Funded in part by the Carnegie Foundation, the original building consisted of one floor and a daylight basement and included reading rooms for children and adults. The building had a red brick exterior,

terra-cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta i ...

trim, and a roof of green Spanish tiles. Remodeled in 1956 and remodeled again prior to its sale in 1967, the one-story building, which had rooms high, became a two-story office building. From 1864 until 1902, Portland had

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

libraries that were open to the public, but it had no tax-supported public library. In 1902, the library system became tax-supported, free, and open to all Portland residents. A year later, it was opened to all residents of

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thou ...

. Within months of the change from subscription library to free public library, the number of users grew from 1,000 members to 8,000 registered borrowers. The subscription libraries had reading rooms only in

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found. ...

. To accommodate the growing number of users, the new library established reading rooms in other parts of the city. By 1907, it had neighborhood branches in Sellwood, Albina, and the central eastside neighborhood. Doyle designed a small temporary building for the eastside branch before money became available for the permanent structure.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:East Portland Branch, Public Library Of Multnomah County 1911 establishments in Oregon A. E. Doyle buildings Buckman, Portland, Oregon Carnegie libraries in Oregon Former library buildings in the United States Libraries established in 1911 Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Library buildings completed in 1911 Multnomah County Library National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon Portland Historic Landmarks 1967 disestablishments in Oregon