The People's Library doesn't have a building yet. But the books have already started arriving.
Before there were walls, before there were shelves, neighbors started donating. Boxes of novels, children's books, the kind of books a family outgrows but can't bear to throw away. They weren't brought to a building. They were brought to an idea: that our community deserves a library of its own.
Those books are waiting for a home.
Why we're raising money
You can't run a library out of boxes. Story time needs a room. Book clubs need a table. A child needs a quiet corner to read, a student needs a desk, and every one of those donated books needs a shelf.
So we're building. The People's Library has always been a dream in our community, and now that community is ready for the next step: a dedicated building of our own. Not a house with books in it, but a purpose-built community space, designed from the ground up to be a library.
We've chosen a wood-frame building kit from Overman Buildings that we'll finish inside ourselves, turning an empty shell into a warm, welcoming home for our books and our neighbors. Finished in white siding with a forest green metal roof and dark brown trim, it will sit at the heart of the community, matching the pavilion our neighborhood already gathers around.
What your gift builds
Every dollar moves us closer to opening our doors, and the more we raise, the larger the library we can build.
- $60,000, our opening goal: 936 square feet with a main reading room, a classroom for story time and workshops, a children's corner, and a quiet study room. Room for about 1,500 books, and a real home.
- $80,000: 1,280 square feet and about 3,000 books, double the room to grow.
- $100,000: 1,536 square feet, a genuine community hub with room for 5,000 books, author events, and workshops.
- $125,000, our dream: 1,800 square feet, a 7,000-book library with its own children's library, a computer lab, and room to grow for decades.
Even our smallest kit gives us a real home. Every dollar beyond it lets us dream bigger.
The difference your money makes
Right now there are books waiting to be read. Your gift turns them into a library. It buys the shelf a donated book sits on, the desk where a student studies, the corner where a child hears their first story time. It turns donated books and a neighborhood's good intentions into a place where our community can actually gather, learn, and read together.
Because we finish the building ourselves with community volunteers wherever we can, a larger share of every dollar goes straight into the space itself. Your generosity builds the walls; your neighbors will raise them.
Join us
The books are already here, donated by neighbors who believe in this. What's missing is a home for them. This is the biggest thing we've ever asked for, and the most important. Help us build it, and help us open our doors.
