This year the Hawaii State Library on King and Punchbowl streets celebrates its centennial. However, the library’s history dates back 34 years earlier to 1879, to the Honolulu Workingmen’s Library Association.

Yes, you read correctly, it was for working men. Women and children were prohibited.

The initial idea in 1879 was to provide a place of enrichment where gentlemen could spend time reading books and periodicals, and converse with others away from "the allurements of the saloons."

Membership was open to "any respectable male person, 16 years of age or older." Some of the founders felt it was inappropriate for the sexes to mix. Others worried that prostitutes would use the library if women were admitted.

The exclusion of women and children lasted a week. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser argued that "the library is not intended to be run for the benefit of any class, party, nationality, or sect."

One of the founders was Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., the "Father of Baseball." Cartwright said, "What makes us old geezers think we are the only ones to be spiritually and morally uplifted by a public library in this city?"

Others wondered how men could be allowed but not Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Queen Kapiolani or Queen Emma.

Within a week the policy was changed, and the name became the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association. A temporary space was found at 111 Fort St., and grand-opening ceremonies were held in March 1879. The library was open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays.

By 1894 it moved into a larger, new building on the mauka-Ewa corner of Hotel and Alakea streets that housed 4,000 books.

Scotsman Andrew Carnegie sold U.S. Steel in 1901 for more than $5 billion (in today’s dollars) and turned his attention to building libraries around the world. When he was through, more than 2,500 libraries had opened.

Hawaii petitioned Carnegie in 1903 and 1907, but he declined. Undeterred, Gov. Walter Frear attended a conference in Washington, D.C., where he made a personal appeal to Carnegie for help.

"I told Gov. Frear that if he would fulfill certain conditions, I would give $100,000 for a library for Hawaii," Carnegie said, "but I didn’t think he could do it, and now he has gone and done it and I am stuck."

In 1909 a $100,000 grant was obtained from Carnegie to build Hawaii’s first public library. The site chosen on the corner of South King and Punchbowl streets was occupied by Pohukaina School, which began as the Oahu Charity School in 1832. It moved into Kakaako and is now in Kahala. At 181 years old it is the oldest school on Oahu and is just one year younger than Lahainaluna.

The cornerstone was laid, and on Feb. 1, 1913, the Library of Hawaii opened with 20,000 square feet, designed to hold 100,000 books.

Frear was issued the first library card, and he checked out the first two books.

The original library was just the front part of today’s building. In the 1930s, wings and a rear building with 80,000 additional square feet were added.

During World War II, 7,500 military personnel became readers. Fearing the Japanese would attack again, trenches and an air raid shelter were built in the front lawn.

"The original group that formed the Honolulu Library and Reading Room Association in 1879 is our founding organization," says President Byrde Cestere. "We changed the name of the group to The Friends of the Library of Hawaii when the first public library was built."

The Friends of the Library helps raise funds to purchase books and supplies for the library. Its most visible activity is the annual Friends of the Library Book Sale, held at McKinley High School’s cafeteria.

"Since the first book sale in 1947 at the home of Gov. Frear on Punahou Street (now Arcadia), we have raised over $1 million," Cestere said. Hundreds of thousands of books have been sold, often for as little as 25 cents.

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Bob Sigall is the author of the three “Companies We Keep” books. Each Friday, he looks through his collection of old photos to tell interesting stories about Hawaii people, places and organizations. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.