The Roslyn Library Inhabits a “New” Space.
- Jail door from original Rosyln city jail
Formerly the library was shoehorned into a series of small rooms on the main floor of the Roslyn City Hall. A combination of civic fundraising and grant writing allowed the City of Roslyn to jack the historic building up and rebuild and renovate the space beneath the main floor.
The City Library now inhabits a spacious portion of that ground floor with the Roslyn City Council Chambers. These quarters are only temporary as the City intends to move forward with remodeling the original main floor. When the remodel is finished, the library will move back upstairs. The downstairs will then become a series of meeting rooms and offices.
Hundreds of hours of local volunteer labor and thousands of dollars of community fundraising made the new furniture, technology and new materials which grace the remodeled Roslyn possible. Highlights of the space:
- Light pours into the space from the numerous windows.
- The wooden shelving salvaged from the downtown Seattle Nakumura Court House blends beautifully with the new furniture.
- The bench was a find that is very popular with folks who like to sit while selecting audio and large print books.
- A wide bench which has quickly become a favorite spot for customers to sit and peruse new adult materials was a local find on Craigslist. Handcrafted from old growth Douglas fir and put together with no nails, it’s even better because the craftsman is a library patron.
- The local art wall which coexists next to a salvaged jail door from the original City Jail. Picturing America, National Endowment for Humanities grant, was the genesis of Roslyn’s effort to highlight their local artists on a rotating basis.
- The jail door adds historical flavor with a story on the wall from a former inmate. The inmate reports that he went out a convenient window to collect his shoes from home and was back in his jail cell without the jailer being any wiser.
Roslyn City library patrons are justly proud of their new library space.
To see more pictures of the Roslyn library, visit our Flickr page!
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