A
little
red
library
The Aquinnah Public Library is an extremely cool little library located in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard. Most people I know still call this area Gay Head but the name of the town was officially changed in 1998 to Aquinnah, the Wampanoag word meaning "high land".
Many people pass the diminutive building on the way to the cliffs and great lighthouse at the tip of the island without even noticing it. I was looking for the building and ending up biking by it. One of those magical places that seems to blend in with the environment until you actually stop and take a good look. Only then you see how special this library is.
It looks like the classical little red, one room New England schoolhouse and that is indeed what it was. Built in around 1844 and then moved to it's present location several decades later it served as the town's school for a long time.
The first library in town was first founded in 1901 but like many small towns didn't really have a place to store the books. They were just sort of shoved into the town hall and it seemed the poor books were always in the way and moved from one location to another.
Finally when the little school was closed in the 1960's someone had the brilliant idea of using the old schoolhouse as the library. A short time later the town finally had a real library of it's own.
The old schoolhouse roots are still very obvious both from the outside and in. Very few changes have been made to the building and even the old chalkboards are still visible as well as the hooks on a wall where the kids use to hang their coats. Fascinating stuff.
The library makes the most of it's space and is a very warm, friendly and inviting atmosphere. Certainly not a large library by any measure but I have seen smaller ones, this library managers to incorporate modern computers, wi-fi and efficiency without losing one bit of it's cool, small town character and history.
Just looking a the old school house is fun but what really makes this library so special are the great librarians. Friendly, knowledgeable, and proud of their library, they realize fully that the job of a local library is a lot more than just to give out books. Their warm hospitality lit up and made the small library come alive. Certainly not the easiest library to find but definitely worth the effort. read more