Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room

San Francisco, United States

4.1

Closed now

22 reviews

Free Wi-Fi

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Telephone:
+1 415-393-0101
Website:
www.milibrary.org
Address:
57 Post St, San Francisco, CA, 94104
b/t Lick Pl & Kearny St
Financial District
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
570 ftMontgomery Street
940 ftBig Bus Tours Stop 17, China Town
0.3 miBig Bus Tours Stop 5, Union Square South
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Today

Today 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Closed now
Local time (San Francisco) 9:41 PM Thursday, May 29, 2025

Business hours

Monday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am – 9:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Description

Specialties

Located in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, the Mechanics’ Institute is a nonprofit membership organization open to the public. The Institute has a rich and colorful history. Founded just after the Gold Rush to provide technical education and training for mechanics and to promote local and California industry, the Institute today is a vibrant intellectual and cultural center serving the entire Bay Area.

Housed in its one hundred year-​old landmark building on Post Street, the Institute serves its members with a large general-​interest circulating and research library, offering book discussion groups, writers’ groups, and Internet research classes; the oldest chess club in the United States with activities for players of all abilities from beginners to grand masters; and an active program of literary and cultural events, including author programs, film series, salons, special events and art exhibitions.

History

Established in 1854.

By 1853 the gold that lured people to California in ’49 had dried up, causing the town of San Francisco to suffer major economic decline and a flood of former miners who had no jobs or skills. In 1854 the Mechanics’ Institute, founded as a chess club and a vocational school, began offering classes in woodworking, mechanical drawing, and industrial design. The Institute’s importance in California technical education reached its pinnacle in 1868 when the California Legislature granted a charter for the establishment of the University of California. The Institute participated heavily in the fledgling University’s first years and sat on the Board of Regents until 1974.

The Institute also was instrumental in the promotion of industry within the SF Bay Area. Starting in 1857 the Institute hosted industrial fairs where inventions, art, and products of all kinds from companies such as Levi Strauss, Goodyear Tire, and Ghirardelli Chocolate were displayed to thousands of people.

Meet the Manager

Taryn E.

Manager

I am in charge of member relations and marketing for the Mechanics’ Institute. It’s my job to ensure that you have a great experience here!

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22 reviews of Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room

No registration required
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
Mechanics Institute is a very nice alternative place to sit and read in a quiet environment. The book selection is very limited and the available books are very strange selection of books. I’ve intentionally searched for certain topics and authors to see whether I’d find at least somewhat equal selection on opposing topics.
For example you will find a very wide selection of books and authors who are Marxist and socialists. When I search for famous authors who promote free markets and capitalism I find a very books. Even for such known and famous economist and author like Milton Friedman. I’ve found only ONE only ONE book by him and another written by someone about him. That’s it! No books by Ludwig Von Mises either. This is very disturbing. At least there are some Ron Paul books. But his books don’t really have high academic value unlike others mentioned above.
Another example is books by famous atheists and books by famous theists. I’ve found literally dozens of books by atheists like Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris. And I’ve only found no more than five books from modern theist philosophers like William Craig or John Lennox, and only one book by Phillip Johnson. Zilch! I’ve researched this topic and know that there is wealth of books on theism from academic sources and accredited philosophers. I am excluding various pastors. This is a very bad sign for any library. If you imagine someone researching «theology» or «religion» generally speaking and if you offer a wide selection of atheists (two of whom are socialists as well) then you should at least provide some books from the opposing views.
The chess room is good and probably the reason for half of the memberships. There is no other place where you can come at most times of day on any day of the week and play some chess with other friendly players. There are players of all ages and personalities. U fortunately many of them are angry or unsociable. Some are former street chess hustlers and some of them can be rude.
The library also has hundreds of chess books. So at least that is good.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
It has been awhile that I have reviewed the library again. The recent increase of web access speed has been a great bonus.
If one is operating in the S/​F downtown area and is in need of a quiet place to focus oneself and to read, one should consider the M.I. Library.
Unlike the SFPL or other downtown places, this is a superb «virtual near-​noiseless sanctuary» for those who liked to reconstitute themselves in a near perfect tranquil terrain.
That is a major-​major positive for «thinking» readers.
My favorite place is the level between the 2nd floor and 3rd floor.
The access of the various cyber databases (competitive intelligence, financials, etc,) is useful for those who are in the research business. …
However, I agreed with Max H, another reviewer and wished that they increase the quantity of «real» science, engineering and technology books. … To be a true mechanic, one has to access to those types of resources. …(It is a quite minor deficiency.) However, most of the members are not interested in that topic.
In summary, the Mechanics Institute Library is a superb place to work from especially at the end of the day or during the weekend. It is the perfect virtual office in «the city by the bay.»
To future members, this is one of the best subpar $ 100 that you will spend.. (It is better than KQED.)
Same Suggestion to members: Buy a t-​shirt to support the library.
Place rating: 2
Española, NM
I joined this library having always been a avid reader since childhood .Such a pleasure to find an old style library after moving to a new town. Spent many a happy hour wandering the stacks and many more enjoying the gems and jewels hidden in them. However after being a member for nearly a year I mistakenly picked up my sons card on the way out of the house to return some books and choose some more. The membership cards are identical with no names on them, only a long number which I have never memorized. It is a half hour drive to get to town for me, find parking ect and with my work schedual not easy to find the time. I return the books, choose some and go to check out. The woman at the desk asks for ID., which I give her. It is clear that I am a member as well as my son. I explain that the cards are identical and I must have picked up the wrong one. She refuses to allow me to check out the books in the rudest possible way with a smirk on her face and basically accuses me of attempting to steal. It is strange because she has seen me many times, checked in the books I returned minutes earlier, and knows I am a member. Her behavior was so insulting that I have cut up the cards and am sending them back to to the library. I have seen another member ask her why she was being so rude to her so I know I am not the first. A pity because I loved the place.
Place rating: 4
San Francisco, CA
Nice, old library with a collection that’s fine but often hit and miss (but it includes DVDs and up to date travel guides!). Nice space to read and work in (sometimes not as quiet or as cool (temperature that is) as one would hope). And climbing the stacks from one story to the next is not unlike traversing an Escher print (which I love). Offers interesting programs and book groups. My only complaint is that you can no longer borrow books on the Kindle (they use something called Axis360, purportedly due to a dispute between Amazon and the ebook vendor). Otherwise, $ 95 well spent (annually).
Place rating: 2
Denver, CO
Wifi is horrible here most times. I need to break out my phone and turn on my own hotspot. They really need to get this fixed otherwise all good. Both floors have the wifi problem. I probably will not renew my membership if it’s not fixed sadly… It is a consistent problem that probably requires a better wifi system hardware and more bandwidth as when the library gets busier the wifi gets slower. Further the signal is low in many spots.
Place rating: 4
Denver, CO
Great
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
The space is beautiful, but the book selection left me disappointed.
I’m sure there was a time when the Mechanics Institute Library was a good place for mechanics and inventors to do research. This certainly isn’t the case today. Most of the library’s science and engineering books are written for general interest or deal with the philosophical side of science. Given the library’s history, I had hoped to find technical books about gears, engines, and engineering.
That said, the library’s selection of books involving philosophy and countercultural history is excellent. I found books that dove deep into the philosophy of Heidegger and the historical reverberations of 1960s San Francisco. I just wish the depth found in the soft sciences section of the library extended to engineering topics, especially given the library’s rich history.
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
It’s not very clear here so let me be the one to tell you that this libary is NOT open to the public. You have to be a member ($ 95/​yr) in order to use the library. However, there are free tours on Wed — I’m not sure what time, it’s posted outside the library but there’s no info online so you’d have to ask.
If like me, you didn’t know this and wanted to just go check it out, you could certainly try. The security guard will let you in but then all the library doors are locked and you need a card to open them. Lucky for me they heard me rattling the door all confusedly and let me in to look around.
It’s just like you imagine an old library. Different levels of bookshelves stacked floor to (low) ceiling. It’s not that big so you won’t get lost but it does feel a bit like a warren. No a/​c so it’s pretty warm on a hot day like today.
The library is on the 2nd & 3rd floors. Both doors are locked.
The chess club and café is on the 4th floor and though it says they can ask you to show membership you can just walk right in. Bathrooms also on the 4th floor.
Place rating: 5
San Mateo, CA
A great spot in a hectic city to get away. Love the library. I’m looking forward to spending quality time with my sons there.
Place rating: 5
Santa Rosa, CA
«The oldest operating chess club in the United States» It is a must see for any level chess player. Defiantly worth a visit.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Love this place… one of The City’s treasures that many people don’t know exists. I worked less than one block from 57 Post for almost ten years and didn’t really know the place existed…
Great library. Quiet. Clean — less «fragrant’ than SFPL, ahem. Tad old fashioned — which is nice. Couple of oddball regulars but I’m sure they think the same of me. Some FiDi workers use it as a quiet haven — me among them. Handful of savvy students also.
Extensive research library upstairs and comfy leather chairs downstairs to read the papers & periodicals and pretend to «rest the eyes» for twenty minutes. Great DVD collection and very liberal lending policies. Well worth less than eight bucks a month. Support this SF institution!
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
I have been a member for numerous years and usually visit there for research purposes. This private library can be described as a quiet and secluded island that one could escape to, especially from the noise and the insanity that roam through our city.
They are superb in ordering new and interesting books and possessed a great collection of DvDs and music CDs. The performance of their DSL service is slightly questionable at times. (The tech. service needs to fix it.)
In summary, the staff is so super nice and friendly. They will enforce the «quiet» rule.
To the noisy members of MI, who are reading this post. Learn to hush quietly.
Also, support the library by purchasing a library t-​shirt.
Regardless of the side comments (from the peanut gallery), the majority of the members are quite civil and courteous.
For less than $ 100/​yr, the MI Library is one of the best bargains for researchers and those who are in need of a place to focus their attention on their current project.
A note for the researchers and project do-​ers who are looking for a virtual office, this quiet locale is better than a well-​known coffee chain.
Place rating: 4
El Cerrito, CA
I can’t see a way to comment on someone’s comment, so I’m posting a mini review.
«Taryn E. of Mechanics’ … «commented on the library’s WiFi: «The strength of the signal varies from table to table. Usually you should expect 10 megabytes per second download speeds»
She must have meant 10 megaBITS per second which is actually only 1.25 megaBYTES per second not 10. This is rather slow in comparison to today’s residential cable or DSL but perfectly adequate.
As for the library, I was a member for more than ten years but haven’t been since around ’05. As the other reviewers have written, the building, resources, and staff were outstanding. A very special, wonderful place. I am a New Yorker and it always reminded me of a another centuries old private library on the Upper East Side, New York Society Library. («Society» was the old Dutch term for corporation and doesn’t refer to the upper class.)
The single negative of Mechanics’ was the head librarian who, I think, happily is no longer there. This never constituted a problem unless an unusual situation required interacting with her. Her name was Inez Shor Cohen, and she was one of the most unpleasant, sour people I ever met. I never understood how she obtained or retained her position since the entire staff from the director to the custodian were all a super group of people who always made a visit to Mechanics’ a pleasure.
Place rating: 3
San Francisco, CA
It’s a nice, if somewhat ramshackle, old library.
Not exactly up-​to-​date, but a good place to sit and work in downtown San Francisco if one does not have an office there and does not belong to a club.
Many of the clientele aren’t exactly hip, but so what? Nerds are people, too!
On the minus side, the librarians can be bad tempered sometimes.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
As a library it’s far more effective than the SFPL, as it’s possible to sit down and study and not be bothered by anyone, most of the time. They keep late hours, they have a café upstairs, and it’s warm.
There are three significant drawbacks, however:
First: the wifi is terrible, to the point where it takes minutes to download a megabyte PDF file. I’ve tried reading digital books from the SFPL’s Safari Techbooks Online subscription (which is awesome and the best way to pick up a new tech skill), and you literally can’t read a digital book from the wifi.
Second: there are a number of older people who engage in unsettling habits in public — and by unsettling, I don’t mean anything as prosaic as farting loudly and repeatedly, or coughing, or answering cellphones in the middle of a library. I mean repeatedly smacking and licking lips, or whispering to themselves.
Third: I know I’m not their target market, but they don’t have a strong science fiction section.
Apart from that, awesome and well worth the $ 95 a year.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Like so much of San Francisco the library is being infected by hipsters and fauxhemians!
Like all native San Franciscans (born at Pacific Presbytarian) I hate hipster. Those nasty spawn from the suburbs who are slowly destroying the culture and character of the City with their smugness and their conceit.
Now they’ve finally infected one of the last bastions of old San Francisco. Where blue collar Mission ribs shoulders with Finacial District. Where people are left alone as long as they don’t bother anyone else.
As I write this a lumber jack bearded lollipop bodied hipster is sipping on his Starbucks lemonade tapping away on his MacBook pro loudly talking gibberish to his skinny sullen tattoo’d «I hate my parents because the give me everything» H&M wearing girlfriend.
Hopefully their trust fund or their student loan at the Art Institute or their parents patience will run out and they’ll go back to whatever McMansion’d hell they oozed out of.
Ah heck we survived the
pukes we will survive these people.
If you are NOT a hipster, this is why you should join the library. Like everyone has already said its clean quiet and has books, some very rare. It filled with old guys and soon to be old guys (me) quietly mind their own business and using the library as its meant to be used not like a coffe shop (So shut your pie hole!)
I’ve been a member of the chess club since Brown was governor the first time and a member of the library since before Bush was president, the old Bush.
Place rating: 5
Berkeley, CA
Quiet please. Thank you.
This was a discovery of The Mother’s. The Mother has been a long time member of Mechanics Institute during her days as an attorney aka solicitor. When I returned to academia, she converted her membership into a family membership.
The Mother and The Sibling have been long time members of Mechanics Institute. They are familiar faces amongst the kind, patient, and professional staff there as well. When they found out I was a member of the family, those amenities were awarded to me as well. Oh, I best be on my best behaviour and uphold The Family Name of being on time and prompt.
This place has become my secret treasure trove of resources. I have found many DVD’s and books that I would not be able to find in the public libraries or in the libraries on campus. Not to mention, the quiet, tranquil and peaceful factor here at Mechanics Institute. I could spend the whole day studying here as opposed to the public and college libraries. Here, quiet is the norm whereas in the aforementioned other libraries, I would have to shoot a dirty look at the chatters and magpies.
I was here the other day to return a book on Jean Renoir and perusing my cinema genre reader for four hours at Mechanics Institute. And The Mother rung me up on my mobile wondering where the heck I was. I had to make a mad dash out of this library to talk to her. Yes, I forgot to put the mobile on silent. Silly Moi. The Mother was shocked that I was there all that time for four long hours.
Well. .. it is a quiet refuge from home as well as a quiet place to study; there are times I have to be away from Dolcita barking at me. (Translation: Dolcita yelling at me.)
Place rating: 5
Daly City, CA
The Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room is a historic building located in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District. Located right next to Montgomery BART station, its easily accessible for everyone. Its unassuming exterior leads you in to a narrow foyer from where you can see everything looks a little smaller and feels a little older. Everything sort of gives off a sense of nostalgia, from the marble floors to the oak doors and trimmings. It’s a very interesting feeling walking into somethings so old.
That environment is a great place to get a few books and find a chair for a good read. Its also a great place to do some research. The ambience almost makes you want to learn and read. The Chess Room on the 4th floor is also great. I have not played there, but theres plenty of tables and they offer a ton of classes and events. There were a bunch of older gentlemen locked in a few games when I went to check it out. The walls are lined with old newspaper clippings and pictures that date as far back as the early 1900s. They often have book readings and discussions in the library and everyone is very helpful in a grandmotherly way.
Its a lovely library and a great part of San Francisco history. Definitely worth a look as they also offer free tours.
Place rating: 5
San Francisco, CA
Years ago, before I had joined any private clubs, I used to half-​facetiously refer to the MI Library as «my club». After all, it has some of the attributes of a gentleman’s private club — overstuffed armchairs in a quiet and traditional environment, good reading materials at hand, and it’s closed to any but members. OK, a bar would’ve been nice, but still — for those who like to imagine that they’re relaxing in the Traveller’s Club or some other Pall Mall or St. James clubhouse, the MI Library is a very pleasant and low-​cost alternative.
There are a few quibbles I harbor, such as the fact that I’ve had to endure a few people speaking on their cell phones in the stacks (their voices were quiet, but still…), and I’ve clonked myself more than once on the low iron beams in the mezzanine. And finally, some of the staff are a bit more brusque than they used to be. I’d be inclined to give them 4 stars on those merits, but I have to give the Library an extra star for its ambiance, simply having endured for more than a century, and for keeping up their collection with so many new and thoughtfully selected books. And at just under $ 100 per annum, it’s a hell of a bargain!
Place rating: 5
London, United Kingdom
I came home to San Francisco to work on my grad school dissertation, but I knew that if I just stayed at my parents’ place I’d never be able to focus on research and writing. I needed an «office»! I was at a loss as to where to go because the public libraries are not nearly quiet or calm enough, nor do they really have the more secluded work space I wanted.
Luckily my parents are members of the Mechanics Insitute library, and they suggested I join ($ 35 for the entire year for students!). It has been a godsend. The architecture of the building itself is gorgeous, and they offer every possible amenity you could want in terms of books, CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, internet, periodicals, and journal databases (YAY JSTOR!). They also have wonderful small-​scale wood-​paneled rooms with big library tables and comfortable chairs that are perfect for buckling down to work.
The icing on the cake is that even when I return to grad school, I’ll be able to access many of their books via the internet and download them onto my Kindle! So even though I won’t be in the same city, I can enjoy my membership. But if I lived in San Francisco and worked downtown, I think I’d be there every day!
Place rating: 5
East Bay, CA
My friend Lisa M first mentioned this private library to me well over a year ago.
I was so incredibly bowled over by the lovely and unique architecture of this historic library on Sat – having walked in for the first time and beheld the indescribable spiral view up to the top from the base of the staircase – I’m headed to a noon architectural tour there tomorrow.
I need time with this puppy; it’s a pure gift that we get to enjoy this kind of testament that stands the test of time. Segue: there’s a chess room here (shhhHH! I play… decently too!)
can’t wait for the sunrise…
PS Tours held every Wednesday, 3/​F, at noon
PPS Beat the founding of my alma mater across the Bay by about a decade
San Mateo, CA
As the other reviews attest, the Mechanics Institute Library is an incredible resource in the heart of downtown. It’s a private library with a membership fee but the resources (books, magazines (both hard copy and limited e-​versions; online databases; classes; events, etc etc) more than for the under $ 100 annual dues. Join this Library if you want access to top-​quality information — both digital and paper — in a beautiful historic building!