06/01/2026
Honoring our Heritage: The Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library
The first meeting to establish a public library for the growing Broomfield Heights was held on December 2, 1959. In January 1960, a Library Board of Trustees was appointed, and the library was incorporated. For the first several years, several hundred books at a time were loaned by the Colorado State Library until a permanent collection could be established. Over its first three years of operation, it moved four times as the donated space was sold or more space was needed.
In 1961, Bal F. Swan, one of the investors in the Turnpike Land Company and president of the Empire Savings Building & Loan Association in Denver, along with the Turnpike Land Company, donated land at #12 Garden Center for the first permanent library building. When the property was donated, he requested that the library be named Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library, and that request was honored. The former first lady had moved to Denver with her parents, John and Elivera Doud, in 1905 when she was just a child of nine. Mamie attended the Denver Public School for her elementary education before graduating in 1915 from Miss Wolcott's, a private finishing school that many of the girls from prominent families attended.
The autumn following her graduation, she met Second Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower while visiting friends at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and a romance blossomed. On July 1, 1916, Ike and Mamie were married at the Doud family home in Denver. Over the years of Ike's distinguished service, they often spent time in Denver and had many close friends there. Bal Swan, along with another of the Turnpike Land Company financiers, were two of their closest friends.
Ike had a very illustrious army career, including serving as Major General in 1943 when he commanded the Allied Expeditionary Forces and led the Normandy invasion. Following the surrender of the German army, he was promoted to General of the Army (5 stars) and was appointed Military Governor of the Occupied Zone in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1945, he was named Chief of Staff, U.S. Army. In 1948, he was inaugurated President of Columbia University, where he served until 1950 when he was called back to active duty to serve as Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as well as given operational command of the U.S. Forces In Europe.
He resigned from his commission in July of 1952 to run for President of the United States. He was elected and served from January 20, 1953, till January 20, 1961. Under his administration, he authorized the development of the Interstate Highway System, Alaska and Hawaii became states, and signed the bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
In 1957, he signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the first civil rights legislation since the end of the Civil War, and sent federal troops to enforce court-ordered integration of Little Rock Central High School. Just two months after leaving the office of President, President John F. Kennedy signed Public Law 87-3, which returned Ike to the active list of the regular Army with the rank of General of the Army retroactive to December 1944. Thus, he could use the title General Eisenhower, which he preferred over President Eisenhower, until his death.
After Ike was elected president. Mamie was a gracious and popular First Lady. She was so loved and respected that beginning the year before he became president and every year thereafter, she appeared annually on the Gallup Poll's list of the Ten Most Admired Women in America. With her Denver connection and her worldwide respect, young Broomfield Heights could not have chosen anyone better to honor with their new library. She was deeply moved by the honor and donated 337 of her father's books to be known as the John Doud Collection, which became a part of the 6,000-volume Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library when it was dedicated. When the library was dedicated on July 8, 1963, former presidents, including General Eisenhower and Mamie, were present to be a part of the grand celebration. In 1995, the rapidly growing community built a new library at 1 Descombes Drive. The City Council voted to retain the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library name for the new library.
On November 3, 1998, Colorado voters voted to make Broomfield the 64th county in Colorado. It is still the youngest county in the United States. Following the transition, a plan was created for the building of a new and expanded library to meet the community's needs. Ground was broken on October 19, 2000, between Lamar and Main on Community Park Road. The new building would house a 28,409-square-foot library, which shares a lobby with a 300-seat auditorium and would include a second-story reading terrace with views of Community Park. Grand Opening celebrations were held on November 10, 2001, making this the third building to house the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library.
