History of the Library

The Cathlamet Blanche Bradley Public Library began as a project of the Cathlamet Women’s Club. Mrs. Lulu Heron, representing the women’s club, met with the council in 1931. Mrs. Heron was a local teacher and wife of Cathlamet mayor and butcher storeowner JW Heron.

The Town allowed the library to use the council room, and in 1933 accepted the Women’s Club Public Library as the town library. Years later Blanche Heron Bradley, daughter of Lulu and JW Heron, and her husband Harold moved into the Heron family home at 61 Main Street.

Lulu and JW Heron at the christening of the SS Cathlamet, Seattle 1919

In 1973 the Bradley’s daughter, Harriet Bradley Tagart, donated the family home to the Town. It was then named Blanche H. Bradley Memorial Center and housed the town library for the next 14-years. The house was sold in the late 1980’s, and the library moved to the second floor of Town Hall at 100 Main Street.

In late 2012 books and library services were moved into the River Street Meeting Room which served as a temporary library, while Town Hall was relocated to the Scarborough Building across the street. During this time the library's former home was extensively remodeled, and space was made for a Community Center downstairs. Town Hall was given a new location at 375 Second Street near the marina. A grand re-opening for Cathlamet Blanche Bradley Public Library with its new entrance on Columbia Street took place February 22, 2014.

The library, now expanded to the entire second floor of 115 Columbia Street, boasts a light roomy interior, with expanded shelving, an online circulation system and materials catalog, a newer book and DVD collection, public wi-fi,  more public computers, printer/copier/scanner/fax, e-books and audiobooks, online reference databases, access to Microsoft Imagine Academy self-paced computer classes, a special Northwest collection, and a gorgeous view of the Columbia River from its historic arched picture windows.