Budding efforts to enlist donors for Sherman Library & Gardens’ $17M renovation plan start bearing fruit
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Dana Brenneman had been visiting cousins in Newport Beach for about a dozen years before ever noticing the wooden sign decorated with painted vines and flowers marking the Sherman Library & Gardens on East Coast Highway in Corona del Mar.
When she stopped by, the Dallas resident expected to see rows of books inside, and to be fair she did find stacks to peruse in the establishment’s visitor center.
But to her, those were overshadowed by the Sherman’s winding brick paths lined with fountains, koi ponds, cacti, begonias, fuchsias, snapdragons, queen’s wreath and a wide variety of other flora that thrive in California’s Mediterranean climate.
“It’s not like, super advertised,” she said. “We were just by chance driving by... It’s not in the slightest what we thought we were gonna get. It was so charming and there were all kinds of areas to check out, take pictures of, hummingbirds, all sorts of things. We would have been visiting [it] for 10 years if we had known.”
The Sherman opened its doors in 1966. As the highway expanded and businesses sprang up in the area, the library and gardens became somewhat of a hidden gem in the community that could easily be missed amid the din of passing traffic, Executive Director Scott LaFleur told the Daily Pilot Thursday.
Even without neon lights or a humongous marquee announcing its presence, many of the cultural and educational programs hosted at the Sherman, like field trips inviting children to discover botany and environmental science, often wind up booked to capacity. That’s partly because it only has a limited amount of meeting rooms to accommodate lectures and presentations, LaFleur said.
A $17-million plan to modernize the Sherman aims to expand space for events, enhance the visibility of its exterior on East Coast Highway in hope of drawing more people in, and address a host of maintenance issues in its aging plumbing and facilities. It hasn’t seen a major renovation since 1970, LaFleur said.
The plan would add a second story to the building currently containing the visitor center. The library and gardens’ restaurant would be moved to there, and the structure it previously inhabited would be dedicated to community programming. That would include classes and workshops covering health and wellness issues, sustainable gardening, history, art and more.
“We have great plans,” LaFleur said. “I have amazing staff full of ideas, and we don’t have anywhere to go with these ideas. And so this building, when this is open seven days a week for programs, we are going to be nonstop.”
The Sherman’s overhaul includes a redesign of its front entrance. Plans for it feature a wide, ornate gate set within a roughly 30-foot tall bell tower, topped with a Spanish-tiled roof similar to those currently found throughout the existing facility.
“History is our core and we are going to bring the history forward with us,” LaFleur said. The style and the architecture is going to remain the Sherman adobe style architecture. We are going to make sure we have all of what we call the ‘Sherman funk’; everything’s not quite on line. Everything doesn’t match up. And we’re going to build those unique nooks and experiences into the new structures.”
To accomplish all of this, the Sherman has been quietly reaching out to membership for donations since September 2022. So far, people in the community have contributed around $9 million to their efforts, LaFleur said.
This summer they’ll enter a more public phase of their Grow the Gardens campaign, inviting more people to have a role in shaping the Sherman’s future. That includes an opportunity for donors to commemorate special
moments in their lives on bricks that will lead to a new “Reflection Garden.” It will be a sunken alcove accented by either a work of art or water feature that’s sequestered from the rest of the space where visitors can lose themselves in contemplation.
More information about the Sherman and their plans for growth, as well as a link to submit donations, can be found on their website, experience.thesherman.org.
