Chase’s Tavern Report—Renewing the Library
By Ellen Nielsen
“I’ll be glad to get out and into the new building!” Unity’s town librarian, Mary Ellen Bellimer, is way ready. Our town library, now located in Unity elementary school, has become an obstacle course. Books are stacked on tables and piled on the floor. The books belonging to the school are marked off with strips like crime scene tape. Despite the apparent chaos, Unity residents are still using the library computer and checking out books, and new books are still coming into the library, which is open 20 hours a week, from 12:00 to 5:00 on Monday through Thursday. And Mary Ellen has a plan for the Big Move. She’s lined up volunteers with pick-up trucks (she could use more of them) and she’s thinking about how to set up the new library space.
Meanwhile, in a woodworking shop in Quaker City, Jim Kahn, with help from volunteers Erin Webb, Jim Romer, and Scott Nielsen, is finishing the new wood bookcases. (All of the labor for this project has been donated.) Some of them have already been installed on the walls above the original and restored wainscoting. Since a lot of shelf space will be needed for the 4000 books, freestanding units are being built to supplement the built-in bookcases.
The new library will be in the former assembly room of the tavern, which takes up the entire south side of the main part of the building. Back in the early nineteenth century, this space probably was used for large public meetings and balls. Later the long room was divided by a partition and a bathroom was added; these later additions have been removed. Most of the wood trim, including the wainscoting and the standards of the bookcases, has been painted soft mustard gold. When the winter sun shines through the five big south windows, the library will be a welcoming and cheerful space.
There will be new incentives for Unity residents to spend time there. Because it will move out of the school, the library will become peaceful and quiet—a comfortable place for reading. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated funds to purchase two computers, one of which will set up to provide free Internet access for library patrons. The other one will be used to computerize the library records and to streamline the processing of interlibrary loans. At last, the library’s video collection will be out on display, and videos may be checked out for up to a week. The library will continue to purchase at least two new books a month, and once again will have space to accept donations of books. (During the move, books which have not been checked out for five years will be weeded out.)
Children will still be welcome—they will be able to apply for their own library card, with parental permission, and there will be a special section for the 1000 children’s books in the town collection. The video collection includes cartoons and Disney feature films. In the past, the library has offered a story hour, and if there is enough interest, it may be offered again.
Although it’s on the second floor, the new library will be accessible for people with mobility handicaps, since there is a wheelchair ramp and an elevator. An accessible restroom on the first floor will be available whenever the library is open. The library hours may be modified to increase access for working people; Mary Ellen hopes to be able to stay open until 6:00 on Wednesday, the day the Town Clerk’s Office is open late, and with help from volunteers, the library could be open on an evening or on Saturday.
The last Chase’s Tavern tour took place on Election Day, November 5. The tours have stopped because the floors are being sanded and refinished. By the time of the last tour, much of the interior painting had been done. The LCHIP grant did not include funds for a paint history, a study of all of the layers of paint, which would have allowed an exact reproduction of the original paint colors. Instead, woodwork trim colors and wall colors were chosen from a range of colors that were used during the period when the Tavern was built. (At that time, woodwork was painted if the owners could afford paint; paint was very expensive in 1800.)
The walls are off-white. The trim and wainscoting in the taproom (the Selectmen’s’ Meeting Room) and the kitchen (the Town Clerk’s Office) is dark red, the trim in the parlor (the Town Office) is medium blue, and the trim in the hall and stairwell is tan. Upstairs, in the hall, the Unity Historical Society space, and the other community meeting room, trim is dark red or tan, and the library is gold. The eighteenth-century colors are mellow instead of bright, and thanks to the large windows, all of the rooms have good natural light.
Mary Ellen isn’t the only person who is getting anxious to move. It seems likely that the work on the building will be finished by early December. The LCHIP grant doesn’t provide for new furniture, so most of the furniture from the old Town Office and the old library will be moved to the new space. However, the Library Fund will be able to purchase a few items for the library, including computer desks.
Local volunteers will be helping with the move, but for most of us, the next look at Chase’s Tavern will happen when we go to the building to register our dogs or our cars, sit in on the Selectmen’s Meetings or Planning Board Meetings, or check out library books.
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New Books in the Library: