MONT VERNON – The Mont Vernon Library Charitable Foundation is announced a major gift in support of their commitment to build a new library for the town of Mont Vernon.

Upon her death earlier this fall, Sherri Conyers, a Mont Vernon resident bequeathed the sum of one million dollars to the MVLCF in support of the project in memory of her late husband, David Lawrence Moore. At their meeting in 16th, December, the MVLCF board of directors voted to accept this significant gift and to honor Sherri’s generosity by naming the adult reading room in the new library in honor of her husband, David Lawrence Moore. This gift represents the single largest commitment to the project to date.

Cynthia Raspiller, president of the MVLCF, said the project has been relatively smooth but like all small-town library stories, this one has a few chapters.

“The original library was built in 1909,” she said, “as a result of a bequest from Sophia Daland, whose trust exists to this day and actually funds the maintenance and routine operating expenses like heat and light and internet for the library.”

It’s funny, said Raspiller, that the trustees of the library are certain that there are expenses that Daland did and did not intend to pay for.

“I don’t think they intended for her to pay for internet,” joked Raspiller. “Since I’m pretty sure she didn’t known about it 1909.”

The original library is 1200 square feet, which probably felt roomy at in early 1900s, but by today’s standards, is practically boutique.

“It’s an improvement from the previous approach to a library,” said Raspiller. “Which involved a wheelbarrow with books from house to house.”

Raspiller said in the 1980s, there was some thought about a new library but she doubts they were too concerned about handicap accessibility.

“The insisting library didn’t even have a restroom,” she said. “That was sort of carved out of the cupboard under the stairs. And it’s still a pretty amusing bathroom to this day.”

A capital reserve fund was started in the 1990s, and they purchased the land for the library.

“There have been several attempts over the ensuing couple of decades, to actually build the library,” Raspiller said. “One of the sticking points in the process for a long time, was the fate of the existing building. The building was designed by a famous architect from Boston, sort of along the lines of a Frank Lloyd Wright, but sort of in that vein.”

Raspiller calls it “a beautiful arts and crafts building,” adding “it has these soaring columns in this tiny little space. And it’s in a very iconic location on Main Street.”

She added that there are many people who did not want to use the library as not to see it disturbed.

“What would happen to the old building became almost as much as a talking point as what should be in the new one,” Raspiller said. “So, we’re very fortunate that over the last couple of years, there was a study group in town that looked at all of the buildings downtown and identified possible future uses as a town building for the existing building.”

Last year, voters approved an effort for the time to buy the building from the Daland trust.

“It’s now a town-owned building, on town-owned land,” Raspiller said. “Previously it was a trust-owned building on town-owned land, complicated by the fact that the septic system is under the war memorial across the street and other fun things, which really make what you do with that building rather challenging.”

Next, an architect was chosen through the monies within the capital reserve fund.

“Every time we talked about a new library, people asked, ‘what’s it going to look like?'” Raspiller continued. “‘How much is it going to cost? How big will it be?’ We really didn’t have answers to those questions.”

In 2018, a needs assessment was conducted, while the future needs and functions of the library were considered.

“There’s certainly lots of things you can read that say libraries are a thing of the past,” Raspiller said. “But in fact, what we’re seeing is that it’s really the hub of the community. And it’s not true just in Mont Vernon, but it’s especially true in Mont Vernon because there are not a lot of other options there. We don’t have any commercial anything. We do have the general store, which is where people go and get their coffee.”

“But the library is kind of serving as the collecting point for mothers with small children, who are kind of trapped at home and need an outlet,” she said. “And it’s a very popular spot for seniors, despite the fact that it’s not handicap accessible. ‘Coffee and books’ on Tuesday is a hugely popular event.”

Tuesdays is also the day that the dump is open. Another mecca for Mont Vernonians.

“We hired Dewing Schmid Kearns, an architect firm in Concord, Massachusetts,” said Raspiller. “They have a real heart for libraries. They’ve done the Duke University library and they have done a lot of other much grander sort of buildings than ours’. We were actually delighted that they were willing to work with us, because this is a pretty small project for them.”

Raspiller said the firm had a vision, which is what you need to sell a project like this one.

“It’s a beautiful building,” she said. “People need to want it. And the charge we gave them was it had to be frugal, functional and inspiring. We wanted people to want it so you needed that inspiring piece.”

Mont Vernon, like many times, is rooted by a group of people who aren’t looking for fluff.

“The firm’s first couple of versions were not things that we could really picture,” Raspiller said. “I wasn’t sure it was going to work. But they really listened to the staff. And they had a couple of sessions with the public. And when they came back with the final version, everyone felt heard.”

The Mont Vernon Library Charitable Foundation was established as a tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization in 2015 specifically to support this project.