A scholarly-looking owl welcomes neighbors to a “branch” of the Little Free Library, which opened it’s 2-foot-wide door September 24th at Boyle & Laclede Avenues (in front of the Boyle Laclede Community Garden). For weeks in advance mastermind Anne Bevill, below, had been on NextDoor Central West End stirring up interest, and requesting books from neighbors to loan to the project.
Bevill moved to St. Louis in 2011 to take an art teaching position in Bourbon, Missouri. She met her husband Doug there, and 3 years ago they moved to the CWE.
While visiting her daughter in Port Washington, Wisconsin, she saw her first Little Free Library, which was started by a school teacher based in Wisconsin, and has since spread across the globe. Bevill longed to start a Little Free Library in her corner of the neighborhood and when the time seemed right, she forged ahead.
When asked who built the box, Bevill explained that she and her father-in-law Jerry Valinna, collaborated on the project—”I’m an art teacher, so power tools are familiar,” she said. Construction plans and photos of finished projects (really interesting) are available on the website, should you have a yearning to open your own branch.
In Bevill’s words: “I have had a strong belief that literacy is the key to progress and success. My eyes opened to the fact that many of our (American) students drop out because they cannot read, or are only reading at 5th grade level when they graduate…Literacy development is a huge problem, but like all huge problems, if we each do one little thing, we chip away at that problem from every direction. Little Free Libraries can get books into the hands of children and adults. Not every child has the ability to go weekly to their local library. How great would it be if they just needed to walk to their corner!”
Opening day, in Bevill’s own words: “Our neighborhood Little Free Library opened with so many neighbors enthusiastic about the joy of having a short walk with the prize of finding a good book to return home to read. Others were happy to have a spot that they could exchange already read books, good books, that now someone else will get the joy of reading also. The little Free Library saw friends come to see it from other states, friends who came from the Ronald McDonald House, friends who stopped off to chat about a good book they had read, children who found a new source for a surprise in a box, and a very special friend who found a remembered childhood book that brought a tear to his eyes. Thank you all who stopped by yesterday, we think Little Free Library will feel right at home at the corner of Laclede and Boyle.
Thank you all, we hope you take a walk and share a book. There are some good ones! – Annie Bevill”
If you have books you want to donate, contact Bevill at [email protected].
I was surprised to find many Little Free Libraries throughout the St. Louis region. Here is a map showing the location of some of those, including one at 4900 Manchester Ave. in the Grove & 733 Union Blvd.
Bonus report: I borrowed the Coco Chanel book that Bevill is shown holding in the photograph. Finding that particular book among the approximately 50 stacked in the box on opening day caused me wonder whose book it was. Discovering that I had a shared interest with an unknown neighbor was an expected byproduct of visiting the neighborhood Little Free Library.