Thanks to a $3 million donation from an Ocean Beach family, longtime efforts to expand Ocean Beach’s library have resumed after a considerable delay.

This week, the San Diego City Council accepted $3 million from Duane and Phyllis Shinnick to support the extension of OB Library at 4801 Santa Monica Ave. into the office building next door at 4817 Santa Monica Ave. That space is presently inhabited by the McCabe Law Firm.

OB Library branch manager Christy Rickey Meister was overjoyed about the Shinnick’s donation kick-starting long-stalled efforts since COVID to get the library’s expansion back on track. “I love that’s what they chose to do,” she said. “It was a good way to exercise your philanthropic muscle to help the library.”

The head librarian pointed out that a future library expansion will fill several community needs. “It will give us a much-needed community room for OB,” said Rickey Meister. “We’ll also have more space for the children’s area – just more space for everything.”

Rickey Meister said the tentative timetable now for OB Library’s expansion is that it will “break ground in summer 2026, and be done in 2028.” She added of the expansion, “It’s to be all one building. They’ll tear down next door, and then build out that way. We’re very excited. It’s much needed for this neighborhood.”

OB’s librarian pointed out their branch is one of San Diego’s oldest and smallest. She added it is also one of the City’s most locally oriented libraries. “We did a survey about how people get to our branch, and most people walk here, they’re not driving to our library,” Rickey Meister noted.

OB’s Library expansion has been spearheaded by Friends of the Ocean Beach Library along with the support of District 2 Councilmember Dr. Jen Campbell.

Laura Dennison, Friends’ membership chairperson, noted OB’s library was closed for over nine months during the pandemic and was reopened with a new librarian and a small staff afterward.

Dennison said the community has weighed in on the library project. “We got a lot of feedback from the community about what they wanted to see with the library’s expansion,” she said. “We handed out questionnaires and received hundreds of feedback forms. It was wonderful cooperation.”

Over the years, OB Library’s expansion was held up for a variety of reasons. OB Friends’ Expansion Committee noted several factors delaying the library expansion project including City budget issues, the Great Recession, threats of branch closures, and lack of developer impact fees for OB, as well as the community’s no longer qualifying for federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) eligibility.

The building and land at 4817 Santa Monica Ave. OB Library intends to expand into was purchased via a federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) loan in 2005.

OCEAN BEACH LIBRARY

Now located at 4801 Santa Monica Ave., Ocean Beach’s Library building dates back to 1928, when it was built for $18,697. The current building replaced the original library, which opened in a storefront on Abbott Street in 1916 after community leaders raised $200 to pay the rent of $5 per month. Architect Robert Snyder designed the library building, which was expanded in 1962 to its current size of 4,579 square feet. Another renovation in early 2012 provided new carpeting and a new roof. A treasure in this iconic beach community, the library has a dedicated group of supporters, Friends of the Ocean Beach Library, who take great pride in helping promote services and programs for library patrons.