After ten years of hard work, the Swan’s Island Public Library is almost ready to call its building renovation complete. In 1991, the village of Atlantic’s schoolhouse was left to the Swan’s Island Educational Society (SIES) for a new library. The years since have taken the building from a shell to a beautiful, functional space.
The two-room schoolhouse was built around the turn of the 20th century, and served as one of the island’s schools until 1954, when all Swan’s Island village schools were consolidated. In the 1960s the building was sold to poet Virgil and artist Minna Geddes, who left the building to the Educational Society – the library’s overseeing organization – in 1991. Five years passed while plans were made and funds were gathered for the renovation.
“They had to remove the entire internal structure of the building,” says librarian Candi Joyce. The library moved from its cramped space by the ferry dock into the first floor in 1996. Since then, work has continued with new shelving and furniture. An upstairs reading room will house biographies and special collections as well as a new computer lab. There are plans to create an archive and genealogy room upstairs in order to protect historical records and make them more accessible to the public.
The renovation was funded from appeals by the Friends of the Library and grants from multiple foundations.
There remains work to be done. The upstairs reading room is still empty, needing furniture and shelving. The library needs computers, a new septic system, shingles on the roof and the driveway resurfaced. These challenges might seem daunting, but the SIES Board of Trustees views them as a small hills to climb after the $300,000.00 dollar mountain it climbed in overseeing the facility remodeling. The new library is spacious, comfortable and reflective of its island past while serving the needs of the future. The SIES Board is excited about looking into the future with programming reflecting the town’s needs.