New Highgrove Library to Open

Until this weekend, the Highgrove Library on Center Street has been one of the smallest facilities in the Riverside County Library System, at only about 1,600 square feet. 
 
On March 19, that will change.
 
The new Highgrove Library will open at 530 Center Street. This beautiful new library will startle anyone familiar with the old library. At about 7,000 square feet, or nearly four times as big as the old library, it will offer the residents of Highgrove many new amenities, including thousands of new books, DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks, a new meeting room for library programs and community events, study rooms, 10 new computers, and lots of places to sit and read a book.
 
And the new library will offer another amenity that the old library has not: bathrooms. The former Highgrove Library was built as a kiosk building decades ago. It was an innovative idea at the time, but the facility had an experimental “incinerator” toilet that was removed when the building was renovated several years ago. Since then, visitors to the library have had to use a portable facility outside the building. This situation came to the attention of Press Enterprise columnist Dan Bernstein who had a good laugh in his column over the matter, was invited by Supervisor Marion Ashley, to the groundbreaking for the new library. At that groundbreaking, Supervisor Ashley declared that the restrooms in the new library would be known as the Dan Bernstein memorial restrooms.
 
All kidding aside, this is a wonderful new library and, with its excellent staff, materials, services, and programs, the library will be a wonderful asset to Highgrove of all ages.
 
Dan Bernstein and Supervisor Ashley will both be present at the opening of the new facility on Saturday, March 19, to inaugurate the library and read stories to children in attendance.
 
We hope you will come visit this new jewel of a library in Highgrove soon.