Architect: Richard Schoenhardt Architects
Total Cost: $4,613,000
State Grant:$350,000
LSCA Grant: $95,223
Size: 35,509 sq. ft. (20,509 sq. ft. addition)

Although the South Windsor Public Library will celebrate a centennial in October of 1998 (marking the date the annual Town Meeting voted to spend $200 to match state funds for library service in the town), the library also has roots in the 1858 Pleasant Valley School District #5 Library — complete with novels and “entertainment reading” for older users, — a South Windsor Library Association formed in 1886, and an 1899 library open to the public in the Baptist Church in Wapping Center.

In 1906, books and services of the various fledgling groups serving the east side of town moved into a new building donated and built by Henry W. Sadd, while residents on the west side of town borrowed books in a room in the Union School. The “west side” collection moved into a new building built by William Wood next door to the school in 1926.

Sadd Library, which once boasted a kit of foxes in its cellar, was closed due to woefully inadequate space for library services in the early 1960’s, and all library service was provided at Wood Memorial for nearly another decade until it, too, could no longer stretch to fill the town’s needs. In 1969, the library’s collections and services moved to a storefront in what is now Geissler’s Plaza “temporarily” until a new building could be built. For the next nine years, occasional additions to the rabbit warren of space in the shopping center provided the library’s only physical growth, but services expanded through the use of programming space in local churches and schools.

After two referendums to build a new library failed in the early 70’s, the town opted to use federal unemployment block grant funds to build a library. While the project itself was eligible for funding, its designed size was not, and the 15,000 square foot library opened at 1550 Sullivan Avenue in 1979 was only 60 percent of the size needed for twenty-year projections. Board and staff considered the library to be in an expansion-planning mode from the moment it opened.

I can remember a tour of the new South Windsor Public Library that year including emphasis on construction decisions that had been made to allow for and promote future additions, such as interior finishes that would not change noticeably over time, and relatively large and pleasant work areas that might allow a future project to concentrate on more “politically correct” public spaces. During the 16 years between the building’s dedication and the successful 1995 vote for its expansion, the collection nearly doubled, numbers and variety of programs soared, the town’s population boomed . . . and a consistent effort was made explain to our citizens that a “new” public building could be outgrown “so soon.”

In 1995, with the help of a politically astute group, Citizens in Support of the Library, a $4,650,000 referendum to expand the library was passed, allowing a design that more than doubled existing space. Mindful of our patrons’ interest in maintaining library service, a fairly full slate of children’s and adult programs continued during construction, once again using space in schools, the Community Center, and the Fire Department’s headquarters. Half of the collection was stored by our patrons through a “Shelter a Shelf” program that allowed them to borrow books by the hundred prior to the start of construction; most of the rest was stored in more than 2,000 boxes in storage trailers on site, while several thousand traveled with library staff and office equipment to borrowed space in the High School Media Center, where we were able to be “open” when school was not in session. After five months out of our own building, we returned to use a small portion of the now redesigned space during the final five months of construction.

Opening festivities in the newer South Windsor Public Library in May of 1997 introduced patrons to a library designed to balance technological advancement and the need for human comforts. Sophisticated HVAC systems have addressed problems of economy and comfort that have plagued the building since its inception, while wiring and cabling were planned for more than a hundred computers linked in networks we may someday afford. Programming and study spaces have been expanded to accommodate the use that we had already experienced, staff areas were rearranged for more efficient and automated activities, and both display and out-of-sight storage areas were greatly increased. Although space for computers and the book collection led to dramatic overall growth (not the “miniaturization” that doubters before the referendum predicted), the anticipation that technology will slow the growth of print collections allowed us a luxury not available when every inch in a library design needed to be claimed for bookshelves: light, large windows bathe reading and study areas with natural light, while celestories both echo the building’s original design and provide shifting tones through the day and the sessions. Come see this library at the Libratects meeting on Thursday, June 11, 1998 at 9:30 a.m. People involved in the design, referendum, and construction of the library will be available to answer questions.