The story of the 1939 Heber City library began in June 1937 when the Heber Mercantile – housing the library – burned to the ground. The store lost $35,000 of inventory, while the library lost all – excepting 500 – of their 10,000 books ($150,000 fire sweeps; Hollis).

For the next few months, Heber City citizens debated a potential location of the new library. Should be it be “down by the seminary, … on the County Court House block, or … [an addition] to the present County Court House” (Architects submit). In the midst of this debate, A&E were on top of things. Less than four months after the fire they submitted plans for a new library as an addition to the Court House. The Wasatch Wave published an opinion piece supporting the location and the design: “[A&E] asked the privilege of making a … drawing just to show what can be done, providing this site is selected.” The Wasatch Wave then provided a financial analysis, suggesting a library cost of $65,000 requiring no local bonding bill. Surprisingly, the PWA program was in full force, but not mentioned in this article. The article ended “this proposition deserves serious attention” (Architects submit).

By April 1938 a PWA grant for the library had been submitted and was pending the passing of an additional congressional appropriation bill. The record isn’t complete, but the Heber City PWA grant failed at least once, and appears to be complete by September (Hollis).

Funding aside, work was completed quickly: blueprints finalized and construction bids let (Aug 1938), excavation complete (Sept 1938), construction work started (Jan 1939), furniture bids let (Feb 1939), and library opened (May 1939).

The building contained a librarian’s office, story hour room, washrooms, and a fire-proof furnace room. The local paper reported that the library “is modern and up-to-date … with magazine, work room and main auditorium elaborately furnished in birch furniture” (New county library). The funding allowed $2000 for books which was clearly inadequate to replace the 10,000 lost in the fire. For years after the library opened, the Wasatch Wave reported on book donations to make up the loss.