About Friends of the Mission Viejo Library
A Brief History of the Mission Viejo Library
A library to serve Mission Viejo was built in 1971 by the County of Orange on land donated by the Mission Viejo Company. This library branch was operated by the Orange County Public Library System and was approximately 9,000 square feet in size.
As Mission Viejo grew and was incorporated in 1988, this small library branch quickly became too small to serve a community of over 60,000. In 1995, the Mission Viejo City Council successfully negotiated with the Orange County Board of Supervisors to withdraw from the county library system and operate its own city library.
Ground for the new Mission Viejo Library was broken in September 1996, and the new 27,500 square foot library opened to the public in October 1997.