The new Wallingford Library, the second project completed from the 1998 voter-approved “Libraries for All” building program, will open its doors at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, with activities planned until closing at 6 p.m. All programs are free and everyone is welcome.
The Wallingford Library, located in the Fremont Public Association Resource Center, 1501 N. 45th St., will feature 2,000-square-feet of program space, new furnishings and collections, upgraded technology equipment, access to a nearly 1,000-square-foot multipurpose room for author readings, children’s programs and other library-sponsored activities, and accessible parking. The library was designed by Miller/Hull Partnership.
The library will also open with expanded service, operating 48 hours a week Monday through Saturday and offering 17,000 volumes in the collection. It is the highest level of service ever provided at this branch. When Wallingford’s first library opened in a renovated house in 1949, it provided service only three days a week and held 4,000 volumes.
“Wallingford is blessed with an incredible library staff and supportive community,” said City Librarian Deborah L. Jacobs. “I am proud to be a part of this new building and working with the Wallingford community to develop services into the future.”
The grand opening will begin with a formal program at 10 a.m. featuring Jacobs, Library Board member Gil Anderson, Mayor Paul Schell, former executive director of the Fremont Public Association and state Rep. Frank Chopp, City Councilman Richard Conlin, 1999 Summer Reading Champion Natasha Priess and the B.F. Day Elementary School Choir. The program will also include well-know Wallingford authors and regular Wallingford Library users Vonda McIntyre and Cecile Andrews.
McIntyre’s book “The Moon and the Sun” won the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 1997 and a Hugo Award. It is currently being optioned for a movie. The science fiction writer wrote the best-selling novel versions of the screenplays for three popular Star Trek movies. Her audiotape adaptation of “The Voyage Home” was nominated for a Grammy. This winter quarter she is the Evans Chair at The Evergreen State College, having recently returned from trips to Crete, Thera and Cyprus where she was doing research for a novel in progress.
Andrews is author of “The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life.” She is also a community educator and columnist for The Seattle Times, and has hosted a program for NPR.
There will be coffee and pastries, free Libraries for All mugs and more at the Wallingford Library opening celebration. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Seattle Public Library.
Residents will be able to learn more about the resources and locations of different items in the new $400,000 library by playing the Wallingford Library Scavenger Hunt. Everyone who completes the scavenger hunt will receive a prize. Scavenger hunt sheets will be available at the front desk throughout the day.
Magician Toby Wessel will combine books and dazzling tricks for a spectacular program designed to entertain and amaze the whole family from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wessel received the Parents Award from Seattle's Child/Eastside Parents Magazine for his work with children. He also appeared nationally in the PBS special “The Art of Magic.” Clowns Unlimited will do face-painting from noon to 3 p.m.
Bubbleman Garry Golightly, winner of the 1999 Golden Bootie Award for Best Children’s Performer by Northwest Parent magazine, will provide entertainment from 2 p.m. to
3 p.m. Golightly, a one-man bubble festival, has performed in nearly 30 countries, including in the Ukraine, where he performed for the children of Chernobyl, as well in Poland, Australia, Japan, Russia and London, where he won the International Street Performers Competition in 1992. “Bubbles are a universal language,” Golightly said. “It’s good clean fun.” Golightly is currently working a children’s book based on his Bubbleosophy and poetry.
Wrapping up the day will be Wallingford blues artist Del Rey, who will share her guitar grooves and sly humor from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Rey started playing guitar in 1964 at age 4. She met bluesman Sam Chatmon when she was a 14-year-old surfer girl and “immediately wanted to become a 200-year-old blues queen.” Her guitar-playing combines country blues, stride piano, classic jazz and hillbilly boogie.
The grand opening of the Wallingford Library will also include raffle drawings of popular books and games for kids, teens and adults.
Wallingford’s first library opened 51 years ago in a former house at 4422 Meridian Ave. N., donated to the city by Alice Wilmot Dennis in memory of her sister, Florence Wilmot Metcaf. In 1985, the city sold the house and remodeled space for the library in the 45th Street Community Clinic building at 4423 Densmore Ave. N. With the library moving into the Fremont Public Association Resource Center, the clinic will utilize the space previously leased to the library. For more information about the opening, call the library at 684-4088.
The current library, 4423 Densmore Ave. N., will close for good on Saturday, Jan. 22. There will be no library in service in Wallingford until the new facility opens on Jan. 29.
(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, communications assistant, 206-615-1627.)
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Content modified: 3 September 2003
12/30/2005
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