August 1, 1941 this adobe brick building opened and served the Chowchilla community for 62 years as the beloved library, a bomb shelter, vaccination clinic and community space.

This year marks 20 years since this important piece of Chowchilla’s history has sat vacant. This petition is to urge the City of Chowchilla to begin efforts of working with the Chowchilla County Historical Society to designate the library a historic property in order for work to begin to seek economic development incentives for its restoration, allowing for adaptive reuse of a historic gem to serve the community for generations to come.

On Nov 2, 2004 Madera County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted "offering City of Chowchilla First Right of Refusal on purchase of old Chowchilla Library Building with stipulation that City of Chowchilla includes requirement that all preservation guidelines be followed for the exterior and interior of building."

"In March, 2009, the City of Chowchilla purchased the old library from the County of Madera for a purchase price of $225,000. The purchase was made through City's Redevelopment Agency".

Since its closure in 2003, the building has not been maintained, as this video published by City of Chowchilla's video shows (below).

Built by the WPA, this property is reputed to be the last structure built by the agency in Madera County. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest days of the Great Depression. Over its eight years of existence, the WPA put roughly 8.5 million Americans to work building schools, hospitals, roads and other public works. Perhaps best known for its public works projects, the WPA also sponsored projects in the arts--the agency employed tens of thousands of actors, musicians, writers and other artists.