My Blogging Home-away-from-home

These next few posts are going to be mostly photos, to show what my town looks like, to give those who might be interested an inkling of where I live.  The image above, rather uninteresting as pictures of walls go, is self-explanatory.  When the library had its most recent (and final, we all hope) face-lift, someone decided we need this expensive sign built.  I would rather they had put that money towards more books in the Children's Library, or in the "How to Survive Our Current Recession Without Even Trying" section of the Adult Library.  However, the ostentatious signage is a small price to pay for the magnificent library the Guthrie family funded for our town.

This postcard shows the original structure, back when it was named the Young Memorial Public Library, circa 1910.  Over the years, all those houses you can see in the background have been torn down, some to make way for the railway, others for future expansions of the library.

This is pretty much what the library looked like when we moved here in 1985, including the Pontiac parked out front.  The addition to the right of the original facade housed the Children's Library.  This was adequate for our needs at the time, but as the town grew and people from more urban (and urbane) locales moved here, it became obvious we needed to modernize and expand to better serve our changing population.  The proposed expansions and name change to accommodate the wishes of the new benefactors were met with resistance from the people who had lived here all their lives, especially those who were here when the previous expansion and name change took place.  Ah, yes!  Small town life and politics - nothing like it for entertainment and controversy.

This view is part of the GML/HPL's masthead, minus the railroad tracks that run in front of the building, which you will see below (not my best photo-taking, but more accurate than the masthead above).  I do like the rays of glory shining from the south of town onto and through the library's windows, though.  Nice touch, that. 

I also like the renovated, updated and modernized interior.  They kept the historic Tiffany window, a real treasure.  (I'll try to find an image of that for a future post.)

Despite my quasi-mocking tone, I'm one of the (now converted) thousands who are very proud of our new library, and who are grateful to the son of a prominent out-of-town attorney who used family funds to remember his parents in so generous a manner.

(First and last photos by M. C. McLemore, 2012)