Who was Mary Frances Isom?

At age thirty-five, Mary Frances Isom graduated from Pratt Library School in New York, after which she came to work for the budding Library Association of Portland (LAP). She was appointed head librarian in 1902. Under Miss Isom’s leadership the LAP was transformed from a single library into a dynamic and responsive public library system, including a host of branch libraries and outreach programs that brought library books and services to all the people in Multnomah County. Her collaboration with architect Albert E. Doyle resulted in Portland’s lovely and functional Central Library, and a cozy vacation house in Neahkahnie Beach, on the Oregon coast.

History of Spindrift cottage

Spindrift Cottage was designed by Central Library’s architect, Albert E. Doyle for Portland’s first important librarian, Mary Frances Isom and her adopted daughter, Berenice Langton Ladd. The Cottage, built in 1912, was one of the first vacation homes in a development on Neahkahnie Beach on the Oregon coast that attracted Portland’s leading artists, educators and intellectuals. After Miss Isom’s death in 1920, Berenice inherited the Cottage. She gave this note to the Library Board:
“In accordance with the wishes of Miss Isom I wish to give the use of the beach cottage at Neahkahnie to the Library as a rest house for the Library staff, and therefore now tender to you the property for that purpose."

Gallery

Spindrift Cottage: for rest and relaxation of Multnomah County Library employees
© Spindrift Cottage 2018
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