1941-42 — The other one went to court

The north side's house came down in November 1941. The south side's did not.

The two branches had been bound together since April 1937, when the council committees first recommended them as a pair, and the 1938 referendum had required that they be constructed at the same time. The south branch's site was the southeast corner of 16th and Farnum, named with Avon and Sill in August 1938 as the board's two preferred corners.

The city condemned it, and the owners went to court.

By July 1941 the City Attorney, Fred E. Steele, was telling the committees that the litigation might run another six to nine months, and that until it was settled satisfactorily the city could not take possession. That is why the Business Men's Club had asked, in January of that year, for a second referendum to cut the north side loose — so that the north branch could go ahead while the south stayed in court.

It is the fourth time in this story that the north side waits on something that is not its own doing: a drug store with no room, a council that answered with a survey, a federal fund that ran dry, and now somebody else's lawsuit.

In the end the city untied them. The north side went first, and the south side followed.

Both branches were built. The north side simply did not have to wait for the south any longer.