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MANCHESTER - The town is preparing to open its new "21st century" library this September, after closing the current main branch next month.
A staff member at the Mary Cheney Library said Monday that the building at 586 Main St. is set to close on Aug. 8 in preparation for the grand opening of the new main branch at 1041 Main St., scheduled for Sept. 14.
The Mary Cheney Library, originally built in 1937, was expanded to 26,135 square-feet in 1962 and currently serves as the town's main library branch. The new 75,000 square-feet building began construction last year after a 14-year journey to expand the town's library space.
The Whiton Branch Library at 100 North Main St. will remain open during the move.
Library Director Douglas McDonough said Monday that Manchester will begin to move its library materials to the new building soon after the closing. He said the town has hired Meyer, a moving company that has helped relocate libraries in Bloomfield and Southington among many others.
Come August, McDonough said, there will be about 160,000 items that will need to be moved from Mary Cheney Library to the new building, as well as more than a dozen paintings by Russell Cheney.
"The tricky part is that we really have, like, two whole libraries in this building," McDonough said.
McDonough said Mary Cheney Library currently has a separately alphabetized collection in the basement that has been closed to the public as a matter of practicality, in part because many of the materials require a ladder to access. In the new building, he said, all of it will be combined with the materials on the upper floors and made properly accessible to the public.
"It's been so crowded for so many decades, and now all of that's going to be out in the open," McDonough said.
Though many are sentimental of Mary Cheney Library, McDonough said, he feels the new building will be visually appealing in a more contemporary way while giving patrons "what they've been asking for for decades," like quiet study rooms and better accessibility.
"It's a beautiful building, but we're moving into a beautiful building ... people have loved this building, but I think people are going to love the new one even more," McDonough said.
Back in 2012, local voters rejected a $12.5 million bond referendum to expand Mary Cheney Library, a plan prompted by the building's cramped conditions. The Library Advisory Board commission a site evaluation in 2015 to consider a new library at 942 Main St, the former site of the so-called "Tong building."
The town formed a 21st Century Manchester Public Library Task Force in 2021, further investigating the idea of a new library branch. In 2022, local voters approved $39 million in municipal bonds for a 75,000 square-foot library at 1041 Main St. Local officials then began designing the new library with a site plan approved in 2024, though costs grew to an estimated $50 million by December 2024..
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