GARDEN HOME

west slope

The building which houses Garden Home Community Library was once the Garden Home School. Due to declining enrollment the school closed in 1982, and the building was acquired by Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD). In 1983, local volunteers (some of whom are still regular patrons) began the library with books leftover from the school. In partnership with the community, THPRD made an old classroom available and generously contributed funds and resources in the library’s early years. The Garden Home Community Library Association was formed in 1994, making the library an official non-profit organization.

In July of 1996 Garden Home became the twelfth member in the Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS), a partnership of 16 public libraries throughout the county. Member libraries share their books and other library materials, so regardless of where you live in the county, you have access to about 1.7 million items.

A 2004 expansion doubled Garden Home Community Library’s space to 1,860 square feet. In the spring of 2019, the library added another room of the Garden Home Recreation Center for a total of 3,449 square feet.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, GHCL ended the lease of the “Annex,” a retail space in the shopping center across the street that had been used for library programs from 2015-2020, and instead acquired GHRC’s Room 7.

For more information (and great old photos!), head over to the Garden Home History Project, as local historians have documented the many permutations of the library over the years.

West Slope Community Library was founded in 1950 by the Century Club for Women. First located in space donated by a local bank, in 1974 the library moved to a park district building in front of Raleigh Park Elementary School in West Slope. In 1978 voters approved a levy for WCCLS which included funds for a 3,000 square foot modular building and for the library to be administrated by Washington County. Since 1998 the library has added an additional 3,000 square feet. In 2021, Washington County completed a remodel of the building, and in July of 2025, operations of the library were transferred from the county to Garden Home Community Library Association.

If you have more history of the West Slope Library to share with us, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!