Former Mayor Don Larson was memorialized Thursday night with the naming of the Seaside Library as the Donald E. Larson building.

Building the library was one of the projects Larson was most interested in completing, Mayor Jay Barber said. “He was very proud to see this project started and participated in the grand opening in 2008,” he said at a gathering of Larson’s family, city officials, library staff and residents.

“I think it’s really special, that we are remembering Don Larson in this way,” Library Director Esther Moberg said. “He was so instrumental in helping with the library.”

The library, originally housed on the west side of U.S. Highway 101, was deemed too small, lacked parking and critical facilities for patrons and staff.

But with daunting costs, plans for a new building stalled until Seaside resident Albert Groot offered a $500,000 matching grant, former library Director Reita Fackerell said.

Mayor Larson, who took office in 2002, made the library his personal mission and in 2005, a new library became the City Council’s No. 1 goal.

Larson envisioned a building that would blend in with the beach and be something the community would be proud of.

Under Larson’s leadership, “The community completely came together,” Fackerell said.

The city purchased the property at 1131 Broadway in 2007 for $184,000.

With grants, urban renewal money and fundraising, the library opened its doors in 2008 without raising taxes or incurring debt, Fackerell said.

The building was special for Larson. Project Manager Dale McDowell — now the city’s public works director — even gave Larson an honorary hard hat.

With a giant pair of scissors, Larson performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony and started a new era.

“People would come and drive just to come to the library,” Fackerell said. “It was kind of a tourist attraction — it was awesome. He was an awesome person and we were lucky to have him as a mayor.”

Eight years later, in November 2016, Larson was honored with the renaming of the library building. City councilors made the decision based on the mayor’s “numerous and extraordinary contributions to local government leading to positive changes for the future of Oregon.”

The resolution, adopted unanimously, recognized Larson’s major contributions to the library project, from the first discussions to construction and completion.

The renaming came just before Larson announced his intention to step down as mayor after the second year of his fourth term. Larson, who was 80, died less than a month later.

At Thursday’s ceremony, councilors extolled the mayor’s “extraordinary passion and visionary leadership to the city of Seaside.”

McDowell, along with volunteer firefighter Katie Bulletset, stood on ladders to unveil the building’s new name, prominently displayed above the front doors.

“If he were here, he would say that his favorite moment was watching this building being built,” Lois Larson, Larson’s wife, said. “The kids and I are delighted that his service to the city that he loved is being remembered by naming this beautiful building after him.

“I will still call it ‘the library,’ as you will, but I will stand a little taller, I will walk a little straighter, and I will smile a whole lot more broadly each time I enter the building under that name,” she said. “We are awed, blessed, humbled, proud and extremely grateful that Don Larson is being honored in such a wonderful way.”