Beaumont Library has reopened in a new Phase I addition that doubles the size of the century-old facility, giving the San Gorgonio Pass region's busiest public library room to breathe for the first time in six decades. The new space arrives just as the library kicks off Library Card Signup Month in September, inviting visitors to tour the building and sign up for cards under a freshly designed logo.
The expansion has been a long time coming. As reported by the Banning Record Gazette, the library building at 125 E. Eighth Street is the oldest continuously operating public library housed in the same building in Riverside County, and it is also the county's last surviving Carnegie library. The full building process, which includes both the new Phase I addition and a Phase II renovation of the historic Carnegie structure, was expected to proceed in two stages: Phase I was expected to finish late in 2025 and Phase II by mid-2026.
The scale of the project reflects how far the district has outgrown its old footprint. The last time the library physically expanded was in 1965, when the area it served had roughly 6,500 residents; today the Beaumont Library District serves more than 65,000 people across Beaumont and Cherry Valley, according to Banning-Beaumont Patch. That growth helped make Beaumont the busiest public library in the San Gorgonio Pass area from Calimesa to Cabazon, checking out nearly three times as many materials as the region's other three public libraries combined, per the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.
A Patchwork of Funding After Voters Said No
Paying for the overhaul required piecing together money from several directions after local voters rejected a bigger fix. District voters defeated Measure M, a $24 million general obligation bond. The district also received a $4.8 million infrastructure grant from the California State Library.
More help came from an unexpected local partner. In April 2025, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians donated $250,000 toward the expansion, supporting what Banning-Beaumont Patch described as the library's first major physical expansion in six decades. Architectural firm MOREgroup designed the project to add 13,100 square feet of new space, restore the original 3,900-square-foot 1914 Carnegie building, and renovate 6,500 square feet from the 1965 and 1981 additions, bringing total capacity to roughly 23,500 square feet, according to MOREgroup.
Part of why the district had to lean on grants and donations rather than city development fees traces back to its governance structure. The Beaumont Library District is an independent California special district with an elected five-member Board of Trustees, operating separately from both the city of Beaumont and the Riverside County Library System across a 60-square-mile territory, per the California Library Association. The district relies on dedicated property tax revenue.
What's Inside the New Wing
The reopened building brings a long list of upgrades the old Carnegie-era structure never had room for, as detailed by the Record Gazette. There is a children's area with a Family Place storytime room, a separate teen space with west-facing window views, and an open lobby with a display case and self-checkout kiosks. Practical additions include a family restroom, vending machines, drinking fountains with a bottle filler, an automatic book-sorting machine, a large public service desk, and a business center with public computers and a copier, printer and scanner.
The new space also has room for the library's outreach vehicle, with a garage built for the bookmobile, known as Beau. A community room is temporarily housing adult collections, and the building now hosts the Friends of the Library bookstore, which is scheduled to open October 1. The bookstore will keep hours Tuesday through Thursday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The library itself has adopted new hours of Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Beaumont Library holds a distinct regional role beyond its size: it is the only designated Family Place Library between Rancho Cucamonga and the Arizona border, according to Banning-Beaumont Patch, offering specialized early childhood play areas and parent education programs.
Carnegie Renovation Ahead, With a Detour for Visitors
Phase II will renovate the historic Carnegie library itself, and it comes with a temporary inconvenience for patrons. The Eighth Street entrance will be closed during the Phase II renovation period, and library customers are asked to use the California Avenue entrance instead, per the Record Gazette. The original library building opened June 16, 1914, funded by a $10,000 grant from industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1913, according to the Historical Marker Database. The library district itself predates even the city of Beaumont: voters established it on August 12, 1911, by a 59-to-27 vote, a year before Beaumont incorporated and two months before California granted women suffrage, per Wikipedia.
New Tutoring Resource Joins the Card Signup Push
Library Card Signup Month coincides with the rollout of a new academic support tool. Homework CA is a free live online tutoring resource for K-12 students, available 24/7 in both English and Spanish through the Beaumont Library website. It is funded for California public libraries by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and its tutors are vetted through Tutor.com.
The service covers math, science, reading, writing, social studies and world languages, along with AP, ACT, SAT and IB subjects and career technical education topics. Students can request specific tutors for continued sessions and use shared whiteboard and file-sharing tools during tutoring pairs. Anyone with a library card number can access Homework CA; children 13 and older can create their own individual account, while children younger than 13 need a parent or guardian to set up a family account.
The Record Gazette's announcement covered the reopening and card drive. Cardholders can check out collection items, and visitors are encouraged to tour the new building and sign up for a Beaumont Library card during September's promotion, which comes with the library's newly designed card and logo.
Bookmobile Keeps Rolling Through the Neighborhoods
Beau the bookmobile's schedule includes stops at 11 a.m. Mondays at the Chatigny Community Center, 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Solera (limited to residents), 2:15 p.m. Wednesdays at Blossom Apartments, 3:15 p.m. Thursdays at Liberty Village, and 9:30 a.m. Saturdays at Mickelson Park. Starting September 25, the bookmobile will also stop every other Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Petco, with that inaugural stop including a storytime at 10 a.m.
