Redondo Beach's historic library is open again.

The city and the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon on the restored Redondo Beach Historic Library at Veterans Park on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 3:30 p.m., followed by a public grand opening celebration from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 309 Esplanade. The celebration offered tours of all three renovated floors and complimentary food and drinks overlooking the Pacific Ocean, according to the event's official listing.

The building won't return as a lending library. Instead, it reopens as a private events venue operated by MBM Hospitality and Made by Meg Catering, a Torrance-based company founded in 2007 by chef Meg Walker, a Manhattan Beach native, according to the venue's website. The renovated space includes a ballroom, mezzanine, catering kitchen, two getting-ready suites and an elevator across 11,400 square feet.

Redondo Beach Parks & Recreation coordinated community services for the celebration.

A landmark's long arc

Voters approved a $50,000 bond in 1928 to build the library, which opened in July 1930. Architect Lovell Bearse Pemberton designed the three-story structure combining Spanish Colonial Revival and Dutch Colonial styles, with arched windows, gables on its north and south wings, Art Deco moldings on the façade and a red tile roof. The National Park Service placed it on the National Register of Historic Places in May 1981, noting its unusual park setting overlooking the ocean.

The building served as Redondo Beach's main public library for roughly 60 years before closing in July 1991. It was seismically retrofitted, remodeled and reopened in 1996 as a special events space, then shuttered again for more than five years before the city transferred operations to MBM Hospitality in 2025 for the current renovation.

Public funding, private use

ADA accessibility improvements to the Veterans Park Community Center and Historic Library received funding from the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District through Measure A. The total cost of the broader restoration has not been publicly disclosed.

The building sits next to a registered-landmark Moreton Bay Fig tree on the site where the Hotel Redondo stood until its 1925 demolition. From the third floor, views stretch from the Redondo Beach Pier to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

An open house for prospective event clients is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 16, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the library.