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January 3, 2010
Old Linden library to come down as new library opens
By Eliot Caroom/For the Star-Ledger
nj.com
January 03, 2010, 7:17AM
LINDEN -- Linden’s 70-year-old library, built in 1939 under the Works Progress Administration, will be demolished by the end of the month to make way for a brand-new and modern facility behind it on the same East Henry Street site.
Last week, librarians bustled around the building one last time, boxing books to move them a stone’s throw away to a new, nearly-complete facility that towers over the old library.
Library staff members said they won’t miss it.
“I’m sure when it was built it was beautiful,” said Susan Schmidt, a library assistant. “It hasn’t been for a long time. We really needed a new library.”
When Schmidt first started working at the library in 1978, the building was already being eyed for replacement.
The city council first approved renovations in 2005 and then a new building in 2007, for a total of $9 million in bonds financed through the Union County Improvement Authority, according to Linden’s treasurer, Alexis Zack. The new building, begun in July 2008, will relieve crowding from the city’s main library, which currently doesn’t have enough space for meetings and activities.
Money for the new library’s furniture and shelves has been raised by Linden residents in a drive that raised $225,000, according to library director Dennis Purvis. Boxes for the move were donated by local businesses including ConocoPhillips, Cox Printers, Epicor, and House of Flowers.
Mary Purvis, who has worked at the library since 1981, grew up nearby on Washington Avenue and visited it many times as a child. Purvis said that in the current recession, the library has been busier than ever, filled with Lindenites who wait in line for the computers and kill time reading newspapers and magazines.
“I’m sad about seeing it go,” Purvis said. “But I’m excited about the new facility. It’s been a long time coming, and we desperately need it.”
Posted by tumulty at January 3, 2010 1:10 PM
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