By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
WESTHAMPTON - From the landscaping of its tiered backyard to the owl weathervane adorning its delicately handcrafted cupola, the town's new library, which opens next month, was built with the support of hundreds of community volunteers, who turned a dream into a reality.
During a recent tour of the soon-to-be-completed building, Library Building Committee member Tom Martin, and Euthecia Hancewicz, president of the Friends of the Westhampton Library, pointed out that much of the work was performed by area residents and businesses.
"The outpouring of support has been so great from the beginning," Martin said. "We've relied on a mixture of community volunteers and people who are willing to work for lower rates than they normally would."
The town in 2008 received a $1.1 million matching grant as part of the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program. To receive the grant, the town needed to finance $700,000 of the project, the majority of which was raised by the Friends of the Westhampton Library and at fundraisers run by local volunteers.
With the state's portion of the funding in place, town officials bought the historic Parsonage building across the street from the town's former 2,500-square-foot library. The renovated Parsonage building, plus the new addition, provide a total of 4,200 square feet of space for the library.
"The orginal library space was just so tiny," Hancewicz said. "We new we needed to come up with a way to improve upon what we were already offering."
As Martin and Hancewicz walked the property last week, David Loven, a local contractor, and a crew of workers worked through sweltering heat to dig out a tiered walkway leading to the library's front door.
"Dave Loven has been very supportive of the library project and has given a few days of his time totally free," Martin said.
The terraces, which Martin hopes will have grass on them in time for the annual Fall Festival, have been constructed using stones from the site and will likely serve as seating and staging areas for public events and educational programs.
"We may be able to project movies against the back of the building and if we have a fall event, like the Fall Festival, we can set up food vendors along the terraces and maybe a bonfire at the bottom," he said.
The building addition and the cupola that sits atop it were built using what he called "vernacular architecture"; a style in which old-timey features decorate newer buildings so they blend better with the original structure.
Similar examples of the building style, he said, can be seen in homes and buildings dotting the town center.
The first floor of the original building and the new addition flow into six separate rooms serving readers of different ages. They include the Sylvester Judd Reading Room; a Young Adult room; the Children's Wing; the Adult Room; the circulation area; and a 60-seat community room.
The large desk sitting in the main circulation area, Hancewicz said, was created through the support of students at Easthampton's New England School of Architectural Woodworking in Easthampton.
"We came up with a design and then the students there modified and tweaked the designs to fit their educational needs," Hancewicz said. "We bought the wood and then they did all the work."
The topper for the wooden desk, Martin said, is going to be a piece of local stone from the Ashfield stone quarry and will most likely be acquired by the town at a lower-than usual price.
"A lot of people have said, 'We'll give you services or time at cost or with a minimal mark-up,' " Martin said. "A lot of people have said 'Hey, we don't want to charge our regular rate for this.' "
Another part of the library completed by volunteers is the 6-by-6-foot cupola, which was built in the Northwest Road workshop of woodworker and construction artist Douglas Thayer.
"That was an enormous piece of work, putting that cupola together and painting the dental molds" Martin said, pointing out the owl that tops it was designed locally and was made out of leftover scraps of steel.
The library's new Community Room, Hancewicz said, will have a separate entrance allowing for access after the library itself closes. It will likely be used for art displays and town meetings that require more seating than a typical town board meeting.
In the coming days and weeks, more community volunteers will be needed to transport books across the street from the original library.
This Saturday, a group of local children called The Book Brigade will form a human chain and pass along the majority of the children's section.
Then, a volunteer crew will use a truck to move the majority of the books from the old library, which were packaged by volunteers.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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