BRATTLEBORO-Brooks Memorial Library has received a $1.47 million grant to increase accessibility, energy efficiency, and internet connectivity.
"Expansion and enhancement of the exterior space around our building have been recommended in public forums and surveys for years," says Library Director Starr LaTronica.
"These funds will allow us to improve accessibility to both entrances for those with mobility issues and offer seating and workspaces that include electrical outlets, along with strengthened WiFi connectivity," she said.
The renovations will also make it possible to accommodate requests "for use of our community meeting room beyond open library hours."
The local award - the only one to a library in Windham County - was one of 14 public library grants totaling $15.9 million that have been bestowed by the Vermont Department of Libraries through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
That $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill was enacted in 2021 to speed the country's recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession.
The new, one-time grants are aimed to "address critical building improvements that ensure Vermonters in these communities have continued access to high-speed Internet for work, education, and health monitoring at local public libraries," writes State Librarian and Commissioner of Libraries Catherine Delneo.
She says the program constitutes "the first federal capital funding for Vermont public libraries in 20 years."
"A needs assessment conducted by the department in 2023 reflected a high need for maintenance, repairs, and modernization in public library buildings, many of which are more than 100 years old," Delneo says. "Libraries serve as community hubs, and this money supports these crucial facilities and the Vermonters that will depend on them well into the future."
Making the building more resilient
LaTronica says the grant will allow the library to address some of the issues associated with a 57-year-old building, such as repairing or replacing inoperable and energy-inefficient windows and encapsulating exterior asbestos panels, as well as to "contribute to community resilience and emergency preparedness with installation of solar panels and a generator."
Library Trustees President Ann Varilly says board members are very excited by the news of what will be a several-year project to address the building's needs, much of which have been "on hold for a while."
Varilly says the state library association made it known the money was available in January and offered "numerous" opportunities and webinars to learn more about applying for it.
She credits the town and community for helping secure the grant money and highlights the community connectivity aspect, as that is a big part of the library's 2023–2025 strategic plan.
"It was widely publicized," she says. "The Buildings and Grounds Committee and town worked very hard in quickly gathering the information we needed and they worked collaboratively, so it was a team effort.
Varilly says the plan is to break ground soon, possibly before cold weather sets in, and to complete the project by the end of 2026.
A modern addition to a historic downtown
First established as the Brattleboro Free Library in the lower Town Hall in 1842, the library moved to the George J. Brooks Library in 1887. Brooks, who grew up in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, made his fortune in a wholesale paper business on the West Coast.
Upon his return to Brattleboro, Brooks planned and built the library building which, at the time, was described as "beautiful and commodious."
At its opening in 1887, the library's collection numbered 5,000 volumes.
Early in the 1960s, the federal government, needing more space for postal operations on Main Street, negotiated to buy the library property just as the building had become overcrowded and relocation was deemed needed.
The George J. Brooks Library building was razed and a new, 17,600-square-foot building constructed farther north on Main Street.
In a special meeting in 1965, Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting members voted $243,000 of bond issues as the town's share of the building project. Other money was raised from the sale of the property and donated by interested community members and organizations.
The current library building, completed in 1967, was designed by Frid, Ferguson, Mahaffey, and Perry, an architectural design firm from Hartford, Connecticut.
The two-story building is described in the narrative for the Brattleboro Downtown Historic District in its 1983 nomination for the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places as "brick and concrete with glass-sheathed east façade, flat roof with deep overhang; rear of building recessed into embankment."
The application, prepared by Hugh H. Henry, a historic preservation consultant from Chester, observed that the library and two other downtown buildings of newer vintage than the Industrial Revolution–era downtown, "introduce the severely rectilinear forms of contemporary design expressed in asymmetrically arranged façades of brick, concrete, and glass."
At the time of the application for the historic designation, the library building was only 15 years old.
"Non-contributing owing to age," Henry wrote.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.