The Fort Langley library said “goodbye” to its longtime home at the community hall on Saturday, Feb. 3, as it makes the move to a temporary home at the old Langley Centennial Museum.
Eventually, the library will have another new permanent home in the salishan Place by the River when it opens later this year – a new cultural centre and museum a few blocks away near the Fort Langley National Historic Site.
The centennial museum location will allow the library to offer its services at a limited capacity, explained outgoing library supervisor Lois Beck.
Its downsized services will include a small browsing collection, pick up for books on hold, and book returns.
“We are excited for our new space
Brigitte Seib, executive director of the community hall, said the now vacant space will be used for art opportunities, such as a pop-up space for the Fort Gallery which will be the first to utilize the space.
READ MORE: Langley’s Fort Gallery goes “mobile” to ensure its future
“We’re not only celebrating the library today, but also the hall and its generosity to the library for all these decades,” Beck said.
The salishan Place is a larger space which also has an amphitheatre outside and programming amenities, which Beck is hoping the library can partner with.
“It’ll be wonderful for the library to partner with the museum. There will be a place where you can get refreshments and hang out, visit the library and museum – it’s a gathering place, it’ll be really wonderful,” she added.
By Tuesday, Feb. 6, the Fort Langley library will have opened in its temporary home in the centennial museum.
The Fort Langley Community Hall was the first permanent home for the library.
The first location for a library was at the corner of Glover Road and Francis Ave., where in the 1930s and ’40s, the library was located inside a druggists and confectionery store.
When the drugstore moved in the 1950s to the west side of Glover Road, the library moved with it.
Then from 1957 to 1975, the library was three shelves of books in Waska’s Store, and Marjory Waska served as the community library.
In 1975, the library moved to the Fort Langley Community Hall for the first time, but not to its current space. It was in a 508 square foot room which is now used as a meeting room.
It moved to the larger, 912 square foot space in 1981, which gave the library its own external entrance.
IN OTHER NEWS: Golf course now owned by Langley Township