Grafton
Chester Gray, a retired corporate lawyer, bought the 0.8-acre lot for $40,000 and then gave it to the town to use as a new location for Grafton Public Library.
The library, listed on the State Register of Historic Places, was built in 1920 on donated land, according to the register application. When electricity came to town in 1928, the structure was among the first to be wired. Yet it’s never had plumbing, which has proven to be more than just an inconvenience.
The library sits on a lot that is barely large enough for a septic system, library officials have said. But it’s been cited by the New Hampshire Department of Labor for not having a bathroom.
“They are holding our feet to the fire,” Elaina Bergamini, Friends of the Grafton Library founding president, said after the signing on Tuesday evening.
The building is open four times a week, for two- and three-hour stints. With only a portable toilet onsite, the hours have been kept short, Bergamini said.
Yet the library has seen increased usage in the past several years, becoming a popular, if sometimes crowded gathering spot in a town that has no restaurants or large public meeting halls. Recent initiatives include efforts to make it more appealing to children, by adding programs during school breaks and other kids’ activities.
“There’s a lot of momentum going in the library,” former longtime Selectman Steve Darrow said before the event. “I have to take my hat off” to the library staff and volunteers “who want to get something positive going.”
During the ceremony, Gray said his late wife had been very dedicated to the library, and when she became unable to make the trip, he began frequenting it himself to pick up books for her.
”I got to know everybody,” which has been wonderful, he told the crowd of about two dozen people.
After signing over the deed, Gray was presented with a plaque, flowers and words of gratitude.
Librarian Deb Clough thanked him for supporting the library over the years, and said donating the land was “a kind and generous thing to do.”
“We don’t know where we’d be if we hadn’t gotten this,” Clough said.
Empty but for a few tall pines, the grassy field borders Route 4 on one side and Library Road on the other.
The site, just yards from the Town Offices, will provide better visibility, said Tina Vasquezi, who serves on the Friends board. “A lot of people in town never knew we had a library.”
It’s too early to say what the new library will look like, but organizers say the first priority will be moving the building and adding a bathroom.
Hopefully the project will be designed so extra space can be added at a later time, “if we don’t have the money right away,” Bergamini said.
With nowhere in town “to just hang out,” she hopes the library will include “a quiet space and a noisy space,” she said. That would provide a place “to be a community” and also accomodate those who want a “traditional, quiet library.”[
One of their first goals, after hiring an architect, is to find out what moving the library would cost, Clough said. If it’s totally unfeasible, “we would probably start looking at building anew.”
An RFP issued by the library attracted responses from five architects, she said. After an agreement with an architect is in place, they’ll schedule public meetings to gather input from the community.
Bergamini said she and her cohorts are “(champing) at the bit” to start writing grant applications.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.