Here’s one the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure and the Guardian missed: the newest place to get coffee, read a book and just hang out in town is behind a wood fence at the Healdsburg Regional Library.
Truthfully, it only opened today, a two-hour open house to visit the new Library Courtyard, on the southeast corner of the library at Piper and Johnson.
It’s a formerly unused corner, with an entrance from the Wine Library, that has been upgraded to a public reading area by a curious turn of events, according to Rebecca Goodsell of Friends of the Healdsburg Library.
At the memorial service for the late Millie Howie, founder of the Healdsburg Wine Library, friends were bemoaning the lack of a “convocation,” a new place for residents to gather following the loss to fire of the downtown Post Office.
One thing led to another, and it was suggested that the unused outside courtyard be improved with a garden, sun shelter and other amenities to create such a place, if only for a few hours a day.
Librarian Bo Simons got in touch with Jay Tripathi of Gardenworks, who drew up plans and gave a bid of $30,000 – far out of the Library’s budget. “If someone gave me $30,000 I’d spend it on other things for the Library that we need more,” said Simons.
But Tripathi persisted, and negotiated with Healdsburg Lumber and other sources to get his price down. An informal fundraising effort – significantly bolstered by a generous gift from Henry Trione – eventually raised about half of the original bid, which proved to be enough to create the landscaped garden space that opened this week.
“We’ll probably have it open during clement weather,” said Simons. “We’ll need a docent to volunteer to sit in a nice place for a couple hours and read a book, to make sure people don’t walk out with the collection. Know any volunteers?” he asked.
As a group of a dozen or so members of Friends of the Healdsburg Library milled about drinking coffee donated by Starbucks – the other coffee purveyors in town did not respond, said Goodsell pointedly – and discussed other plans for the space. Teen book clubs, Halloween pumpkin carving parties, even book club meetings were suggested.
At present, the Library plans to keep the doors open into the reading garden hour hours a day, and keep the gate on Piper St. unlocked as well, so you can just drop by and enjoy the shade. The coffee klatch will probably be monthly, on the last Thursday – like today – for a couple hours, 10 – noon.
There will be a dedication of the new library courtyard, to honor Millie Howie, on June 29, at 4 pm. The courtyard won’t have a formal name, but if you call it “Millie’s Garden” people at the Healdsburg Library, and their Friends, will probably know where you mean.
