C.K. and Ella K. McClatchy Family/McClatchy Library

In 1910, Sacramento Bee Publisher and Editor, C.K. McClatchy, and his wife, Ella, constructed a residence at 2112 22nd Street. The home was designed in the Beaux Arts and Colonial Revival architectural styles by famed local architect, Rudolph Adam Herold. The McClatchy family business--currently known as The McClatchy Company--is the recipient of over 54 Pulitzer prizes for excellence in journalism. Arguably, no other family has made a greater or more positive historical impact to the neighborhood.

Following Ella McClatchy’s death in 1939, the McClatchy's two surviving children, Eleanor and Charlotte, presented the home to the City of Sacramento for use as a youth library in memorial to their mother, Ella K. McClatchy. Mrs. McClatchy had always been an avid supporter of young people and education. The McClatchy daughters also wanted to have a public library located closer to the recently constructed C. K. McClatchy High School, named in honor of their father.

In the early 1990s, the city library system--in response to budget pressures--considered shuttering the neighborhood branch of the Ella K. McClatchy Library. Neighborhood residents promptly organized and formed a non-profit organization to ensure the branch’s continued survival. Thanks to the efforts of the "Ella K. McClatchy Library Friends", the McClatchy Library has been completely rehabbed and continues to receive much needed aid for library programs today.

Featured images (in order of appearace): 1) C.K. and Ella K. McClatchy, 2) The McClatchy residence, located at 2112 22d Street, as it appeared in the early 20th-century, 3) A circa 1949 image of Sacramento youth emerging from the newly created Ella K. McClatchy Library for Young People.