Library 116: The Sarah Partridge Community House & Library (Middlebury)
The library with a Hot To Go bookshelf.
Library 116! The Sarah Partridge Library in Middlebury was the 116th stop on my quest to (read and write and) knit in every library in Vermont.
I knit: a test knit in mountain mohair from Green Mountain Spinnery.
I read: (I didn’t read on this visit… the stops are getting quicker now that work has started again)
I wrote: the names of Laura’s chickens
Library firsts: a fire hydrant in a fireplace.
Seen again: taxidermy that a local patron was unwilling to throw away; Robert Frost relics; two fireplaces; paintings of cows; a crafty librarian.
This branch library is in the village of East Middlebury, and is certainly not a clone of its parent, the Ilsley Library. One similarity is that both librarians I met told great stories about the namesake portraits hanging on the wall. At the Ilsley, that was Judith & the Colonel, a story I repeat often when people ask me about memorable library visits.
Here, it was the Partridge family. Sarah’s son Frank (who named the library after his mom) tended to anger people. He served as Vermont’s senator in Washington for three months, and was also once elected to the state legislature, but lost his seat soon after and was forced to find other creative ways to annoy his neighbors. One year a parade formed around his home in November in which the people chanted “We don’t want turkey, we want Partridge.” I didn’t get the deets on how he engendered this dislike, but the story has endured long enough to make it to Instagram, so it must have been epic.
Frank’s mom Sarah was also a character, and rumor has it that she was a member of both churches in town so she could have 100% creative control over the craft bazaar. If I had to choose to be a historic czar, I would choose craft bazaar czar.
Librarian Laura had a pile of knitting books on her desk, so I felt at home. I might also feel at home in Laura’s family, which has a brood of live hens with names including “Princess Lay-a,” “Buffy the Vampire Layer,” and “HEN SOLO.”
Heath noticed the term “community house” in the title, and we got a tour of the basement and parlor where community events take place. Many libraries serve this role without including “community” in the name.
This library has a system (new to me; other libraries do this) where they put the “hot right now” books back on the display shelf between check outs. This gives the book a moment to be seen to passersby before hopping from one patron home to another patron home, following marching orders from the digital hold list. How thoughtful. When I posted this on Instagram first, Lanpher Memorial Library Librarian Amy Olsen suggested this might be called a “Hot to Go” display, which is the best name for a library display shelf I could possibly imagine.
Have I mentioned lately what a great photographer you are?