my name is sara marie mallets I'm the library and community center coordinator here and I just want to thank you all for coming this is amazing I'm so excited and I just want to thank you so much a couple of pieces of business as you can see I need to note that we are videotaping and taking pictures tonight which is not a common practice here at the library so I need to let you know that cameras are being used and we want to thank the South Washington County telecommunication Commission for coming and doing that for us tonight I feel quite fortunate to be a caretaker of this historic and exceedingly special space and I hope you'll get a taste of that from our short presentation tonight we'll begin with a presentation from some of our young patrons Newport Newport library is but awesome great cozy calming and escape at Newport library we read study play listen and make friends sharing make music color come down win learn improve I go to Newport library and community center because it's fun I could enjoy myself the service is great I like the staff and the activities I can work in peace I can hang okay before you guys move I would like you to introduce yourselves and why don't you tell us what grade you're in in school I'm Nick I'm in sixth grade I'm Brody I'm in sixth grade fifth grade my name is Chloe and I'm in sixth grade my name is Ryan and I am also in sixth grade thank you okay you get thank you guys you can all sit down good job thank you as you can see while this space is old it is also vibrant the youth play a great part in keeping this place exciting and fun beyond crafts the kids sharing activities together much of the year we have many different activities including a youth-led escape room reading competitions reading groups and talent shows like the holiday review coming up in December I'd also like to point out that the children didn't just decorate for tonight they read each ring on these multicolored chains represents 15 pages of reading our top reader who happens to be the 5th grader has a hundred and sixty-seven rings on her chain that works out to two thousand five hundred and five pages ladies and gentlemen all told you are looking at six hundred links representing a total of nine thousand six hundred pages since November first since November first so roughly three weeks at this time I'm going to ask Denise to help me out and bring the stuff for the coloring contest Awards okay thank you okay so the coloring contest sheets are also up on the wall and there it is okay so if these children are here please come forward Bella Chloe Charlotte vada Isaiah and Nelly [Applause] these are participation Awards I'd also then like to ask Carol and Hayley to come up in the children's division which was ages 0 to 6 they colored pictures of the building and Oh Carol's not right here um okay so Carol received the award for the children ages 0 to 6 and Carol is Chloe and Vedas sister so I'll give that to her and then Hayley receives the award for the children ages 11 to 18 there was the winner for the in-between group is not here tonight and that's my daughter Josie I was not one of the judges okay thank you guys it is now my great pleasure to introduce a woman who for most of you needs no introduction mrs. Joe Bailey Joe has been a member of the library Advisory Committee as for so many years I can't count she currently serves as the president and has been a champion of the library and community center I can honestly say that this evening would not have happened without her and Joe will now share some information about Newport libraries history Sarah Marie I don't think it's for the camera it is a wonderful pleasure to see this many people here you know the planning started some time ago for this and you think well if ten people come I'll be really happy and then you think well maybe 25 will come this is outstanding and it makes us all feel so happy Sarah Maria some works so hard and all the children participated and anyway we're just happy to see all of you so you are sitting comfortably and the historic Newport library this doesn't work Oh shall I talk about her I can okay good okay so um 1889 it was a very interesting year for America some of the things that happen North Dakota South Dakota Montana and Washington joined the Union Grover Cleveland through short well was the president coca-cola incorporated into it doesn't as turned out to be huge Donna Atlanta Georgia and I'm sure all of you know it was a medicine before it became coca-cola the big land rush in the Oklahoma Territory was going on the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania killed over 2,000 people in this year and July 8 The Wall Street Journal first issue was printed in New York City that's around a long time and Derek Nellie Bly who was pseudonym for another name of hers but she was a very intrepid wonderful woman pioneer in education and in writing for newspapers and she decided she could do better than Jules Verne's any around the world you know in 80 days and she done it in 72 days six hours and 11 minutes and I didn't have time to Google I thought well I want to find out how she did this it was great so tonight we are sitting in this wonderful library which 130 years ago today was the day that the village of Newport had their council meeting and through the encouragement of the mayors of life Francis James decided they needed a library here now when we only had around 300 people around here most of them lived out in the country and you can imagine that that was pretty forward-thinking but her husband was the mayor and they were from out east so they knew about the libraries and education and they both were well-educated ambitious people she was a talented artist so you can see them really could do a lot of good for this community so because mrs. James really wanted to have a library her husband at the second meeting was the second thing they judge was to say yes we will have a library reading room so he appointed a little Commission of nine men because I suppose they didn't know who the women would be on it and they just took all of it they got in touch with the st. Paul library the Minneapolis library they got ideas about how to go about it and they were unlucky enough to have mr. James's brother Frank who was visiting or something I don't know but he stayed for a couple of years without pay and he's the one who was really not the Leon library off the ground and of course it wasn't in this building it was in a little two room schoolhouse which was in the part of Newport that's called Red Rock and it's very confusing Red Rock and Newport and what-have-you but anyhow it was in Red Rock territory and the people were ecstatic here to get this library it was so wonderful because they could have a place where they could come and get together no in those days they didn't have movie theaters to go to entertainment they had to make their own and they were a little cohesive group everybody kind of knew each other and everything sort of revolved around your family church and school and I know that's the way I grew up I grew up in a small town and that's just thought it was you know everything that was going on in town and those were the three mainstays of the little towns and that's what was here too so they all pitched in and um the lady is soda curtains see we don't have any curtains here but we don't hear to me and the men painted the rooms and they got everything like a little furniture of this wooden game and they had 66 books but they started out one month later and mr. James Frank did a real good job as the first librarian and as I said he didn't take any pay for it at all he was just happy to do it and I don't know what his education was but what him dearly wanted was a dictionary and atlas and a clock those were his first once and the council did give it to him so that was lovely nice so anyway so well getting back to the James family you probably wonder a little bit about them so that they were all able to do this he was an attorney well no one worked in st. Paul and I often wonder how he got back and forth every day you know did he have a car at those famous you know a lot of people might have had a car but I think he went in on the the train that went in to town would be the locomotion for him to go and his wife and he lived up on top of the hill they had a mini mansion up there was called Harvard place and it was right now it's where the Newport Methodist churches and Steve we have the new minister from there did you know that yes well there is a picture of it over there oh yeah and it's a beautiful place it's sadly they did run into some financial problems and after about ten years they had to move and then a few years later the host burned on so that was a tragedy so but the library just it just took off and it was very successful so that was November 20th and in January they had a little get-together at the library and as I said it wasn't this room it was the little schoolroom where they had it and they had a little party they brought in some people whose names just don't know I'm mr. Otis from st. Paul that is a big name and in st. Paul came to get a little talk with Sonny and they had 66 books they had 23 newspapers and periodicals where they all came from is not unknown but that was pretty good and so there were things for people they weren't open very much they were open I think it was two nights a week from 7:00 to 9:30 and then on Saturday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00 so it wasn't as if they had lots and lots of time but it was enough for the people I'm sure at that time so an added duty of those council members who started this library was that they had to review every single periodical a book that came into the library and one of the little librarians must have been quite scandalize now and then because she had to reject a few she was too spicy I was nothing compared to today and also got rid of the Communists books which I thought was kind of interesting that that was well it was the time of the Reverend Russian Revolution in those times so you know they know about it and so they were up two minutes on that so okay you're wondering about if he didn't take any P and they had to get some books and they had electricity well they didn't get electricity at all 1917 so they had kerosene lamps but still they had to pay for all that and they got by with fifty dollars a year money and I don't know what that would factor out to today's but it's not a whole lot that's for sure so fifty dollars is all they needed but they'd get donations and they had subscriptions that was sort of a popular thing to do and I think that's just like heavy not a season tickets or something but they never turned anyone away their idea always was to have the free library it didn't make any difference if they lived in st. Paul or Stillwater wherever you could come and it would always be free so that was a wonderful thing they were I think probably years ahead of themselves on something like that so anyway well the librarians we've talked about mr. Frank who is the first librarian and then after that he was the last man that they had as I'm sure the rest of them are all busy working with their jobs but we were lucky enough to have some real capable women young women moms you know back then mothers just stayed home of course this was just the early 1900s and I mean the pay wasn't too great a dollar a day two dollars a week is but they only work two days and there was no medical insurance you know and stuff like that but I'm sure they just brought the children with them probably and got along man with a gathering place nobody cared you know you didn't have to be real quiet or anything it's just kind of like libraries should be but back then I'm sure if you wanted to st. Paul it would busy business or oriented it's not like there's a little library out here but anyway and did they have a lot of work to do they would get a lot of of wood and they had a carry it down into the basement no I don't know how many of you have been into this basement I know how that all worked but the basement here and then they had to chop kindling and chop the wood and start the fire and they had a wood fire to hit the libraries for many years it wasn't until actually until 1972 I think it was when they finally got a proper furnace and it was I stated oh I still call in that library in the wintertime so so they the librarians even though it's a mere pittance they did earn their money that's for sure and there were among some of the really loveliest ladies in town who were at the library Lolita's sitting there and her mother-in-law was one of the sweethearts said what came and and the women were just plain ordinary ladies and some of men had been teachers probably but they were just interested in helping out the community so it was very very nice of them and the one who was her the longest one and if you're from Newport you would know of Francis Armstrong she had been an English high school teacher and she was here for 25 years but she did run it as a library and Pauline you would remember her woods yes but she did a great job and she was sort of she was Virginia Holland's dearest friend and they were the two people who know all about the history of of Newport okay so there we go so well then I mentioned that things were getting a little bit better and the little group of Red Rock people decided they needed their school back well so here we were using it for the library now what are we going to do it and at the same time the Baptist Church which was circa 1859 had closed some time ago and they had still kept the the lime are the Church and that sisters that world right now and they they made a deal with them which was very good all the library had to agree that the only things they would have in here would be a library and the women's club now I'll talk to you about the Women's Club in a minute here because that was something that was a a very proper thing to have in a library and it was okay if they could have plays there which they did they'd have a lot of musicals parties and things but no dancing they could never have any dancing but they all got a lie and it was it was very fun though I mentioned about the Women's Club back in well Frances arm James started it in here in 1902 but it was it was all over America and it was an organization for women and I've seen pictures I mean they got all dressed up to come once a month then they'd hold their meetings here now this looked a little bit different you know the staircase wasn't there this wasn't here at all there was a baptismal font and and lots of the furniture and things here are original from that church as well as the butternut tables I mean the butternut trees were and the grove is around here so they made use of all the different things that that they could from here so can you hear me okay back there okay I can ramp it up a little bit but anyway they started these and and they had run here for 50 years and they were very popular and it was just to give women just I said a little outing learn about the world what was going on it was sort of a little like sociability 101 something like that for him and they hadn't just minor duis but this this group from here was actually quite well known and they were I was very supportive of the library they did things for the library and give him some money and whatnot but then through the years women you know started to get back to work more women were and politics and all kinds of things and they just have time to go to the women's squad anymore so they they divested themselves of women's club and that was the end of it and I think that was in 1971 I have to tell you a cute little story my husband's grandma was Elizabeth B Lee and she was a member of the club and she was really good at making gym so there was going to be a gym making contests for like five or six states around here well she entered and of course she won the first place so that she got a hundred dollars for her club and a trip to Denver Colorado for herself and her husband and we never know if she went out to Denver or not whether sure the club made good us $100 we'd love to have that recipe it was plum jam as I recall so anyway she was interesting so as I go along if anybody has any questions about any other stuff be sure to okay so yours went along here we're not in this building and down here as I say since 1897 we've done some improvements it's wonderful I think that they've kept the beautiful architecture the one thing we want to bring back is the cupola that stood on the top of the building by the person's long gone and we hope we hope if we can afford it sometime to get one just to make it look as it judge that many years ago because 1859 there's a long time ago and you'll wonder how they could do it when we Ronnie a state in 1858 so anyway but see here so it soon became parent well I should say soon we existed in this library all on our own for 90 years without any help from the county at all we were giving them money because we could go and get some books from them if we wanted but this was our library and I remember having a little book budget it was a hundred dollars a year to buy books for this library but we had a content everybody giving us things too of course but you know money was scarce back then but they made it go and it was a very good very popular library then you could see I mean with my kids they couldn't it just didn't have enough well there was a Google and all that you had to go to the university libraries or in town to make your your investigations and sub for your papers and it looked like we really had to belong to the Washington County Library so it took a while but they gave a good deal to us and they were very happy to have us and that nice arrangement lasted for quite a few years until 2011 when the budgets weren't very good and their library budget went down and it was either close us up or just give us extremely minimal service and whatnot so as much talking and much ado they just decided we would just get out of that country system and they gave us like we get some special perks of course and we always get we can go to any library much but this is still home you know this is the library for us and anyway so we have existed know since on our own since 2012 and it is now called the Newport library and community center and here is here we are today and what are we today we'll versatile this wonderful library we're still in this gorgeous little building that everybody loves to come to we have really all that we need I mean if you're a great reader of course you have to go to the bigger libraries who can't have everything in a little tiny time but it's a great service as a community center and I find all over the world and certainly all over America it isn't just the library per se it's a library community center and it's like the living room for the community and you can have a class you see this is modest of course these filo computers here but you get computer classes in going crochet you've been going quilt and we can do all that not all of that here that we can go we're right in between Woodbury and Cottage Grove which are the two biggest libraries here so we are lucky on that respect so anyway we think we're in a pretty good place so we as I said we still have complete service at all the libraries and for that matter if you really want to take it a step further we can order anything we want from any library in America because they're all interconnected one way or the other so we're very proud of the library and we hope you were too I think you are because you all came out tonight to help us celebrate this wonderful occasion so I think I can't tell you how happy we are to see all of you tonight so but does anybody have any questions actually I think we can just we put some music on yeah it was it was the Baptist Church for a new part mhm and then they had to declassify it and then it became the library so good well I'm sure there are many many many many wonderful stories around about the libraries that's for sure oh I had a really funny one underneath here someplace is the baptismal font and one of these great women who was the librarian one day she came and honest appeared there was a big hole in the floor right over there so instead of calling City for help of course I couldn't do that she got a hammer and some boards and she just repaired it on the spot so they they didn't know what to do there really does so good okay anything else yeah well that is a good question is there anybody here from the colonial library system well of course we hope this will always be here and as long as you know no part owns this one and so we're doing a good service and not having to pay that much and it can go to all the other ones so I think we're in good shape we had a few chance he reserved for a while but no when that time comes when they want to take a library way then we all have to get on and do something about it because libraries there are so many great quotations about libraries you know they're there to stay ok anything else ok well now it is my pleasure to turn you over to our great historian here Bob Vogel and Bob our stalwart planner and mentor for the Newport Historical Preservation Commission and he has done with us ever since it started in maybe two words will come up a lot yes a long time yes he's well known throughout America he has brought it about the restful little pirates and somebody had yes near New Orleans I think so anyway so anyway and here's a big expert on Minnesota history so think about well I am the city's historic preservation planner so I actually worked for Jill actually and have I think since 1992 it's one of the relatively few cities in the United States that has a fully staffed professionally led historic preservation program and it's a great little job there are about 25 historic properties in the city that are actually zoned as what we call Newport heritage landmarks and this is one of the first that was registered right after the program was created now every one of these buildings most they are has a story and I could tell you that one of the reasons I I really rather cherish this job is this one of the more unusual places I have worked and I literally work across the United States and a little bit overseas I mean this is a very unique community and the library's story kind of reflects that kind of overarching trend but there are other buildings that also commemorate even more bizarre people doing unusual things at strange times that no one else was thinking of but just in terms of the landmark status of this building it's obviously a church and it's a church built from a book in the mid nineteenth century the most popular kind of book in the United States well actually the most popular were murder mysteries but the most popular non-fiction book I guess where color called architectural pattern books no one could find an architect or an engineer to build a building but everybody could find a book that tells you how to do it and so a whole flooded there almost like the self-help books today and they were marketed at exactly the same way but churches and in this case the Baptist pastor Lyons who is this itinerant preacher who ended up being the pastor here in Newport because the actually the woman who named the town hired him to be her kind of personal clergyman and his job was to actually establish the church and not being a trained architect or engineer he went and got a book and turned to the page that said Church country Church and bingo and so it has twins and cousins across the landscape of the United States but it doesn't it's a little bit unique and it has these two baptismal you know Joe referred to them as baptismal fonts a little Catholic boy like me envisioned when I was told that story of something like a bucket shaped kind of thing now these are about twelve by fourteen this one for men and one for women and are designed to for total immersion so what a pose durable parts of my job for twenty some years but whenever they changed the carpets I sneak over here and pry a few boards loose so he can actually get an idea what's going on under there the building is in very good condition this is pretty much what it looked like it's had an awful lot of things done to it but they've been on the whole rather respectful as Joe also mentioned we really want to put the cupola back on there's an old photograph in here somewhere shows it with this you know belfry and on the front and it was a spectacular looking little building and when it's lit up at night is you have if you've never been how many of you have never been in this building before I should ask this yeah well whew it really looks cool at night daytime maybe not so much but I also get to teach here which is a true joy and I've taught community education classes here various authors and I have given our little book reports here Larry Millett the architectural historian elese tells he wants to come back assume the best places he ever election except he could only have 21 guests because there's really only room for 21 chairs as you've all demonstrated here well you've got um it's kind of squished it but that's because these people really like each other that's but it's a it's a wonderful experience it's it's hard to for 21st century people to really get a idea of what the 19th century was like until you get into spaces like these and it's real easy to kind of feel the intimacy I mean this is where the librarian sat on this little throne and kept everybody quiet so they couldn't you know utter of a peep and we even know what books the library owned various times and we know all kinds of weird stuff like that because they kept meticulous record this is like the ultimate record-keeping book punch oh well the Women's Club and the ladies they designated as the librarians and so it's all in beautiful penmanship a mix makes me cry because the nuns beat me for years and still couldn't get me to write that good and and there they just record everything we have every program for every meeting of the Women's Club from 1892 to 1970 actually Joe is one of the last of the of the speakers on their series now women's clubs are great I'm glad I booked they shouldn't have gone but allowed to go extinct I should be brought back they really served a very useful purpose but this was the perfect place for them to be and of course we also have the city records that go with it so you can read every year the report of the library committee going on down the street to the village what's now the Model Railroad Club house and giving their report and they're just daring the council members not to fund them and you can you can tell every now and then they hold an illegal meeting and deep reduce the budget and the next page shows the women come back and and the budget is restored so it's another trend that keeps on living so I encourage you if you want to know more about Newports historic sites the city's website has a map and a guide to and a little bit of information about them you can always call our office if you have a particular one in mind and we're always looking for students who need a paper topic I have a drawer full of things we need to TAS some student with to find out including a it'd be nice to know who this AAS Lyons was who did all of the work in 1869 to create the building and his and his patron missus Hugin and who we didn't even have a name for until a few months ago we found out her name is Mary and she's the one who thought of the name of Newport for the community when she got here in 1857 she's from Newport New York which if you ever have occasion to go to the lakes district in New York it's why the prettiest places on earth and so she bestowed that upon us here and then went on to found the Baptist Church and indirectly found a library her husband who was the postmaster and every other office he could find a run for was also on that first library board who were all men even though women didn't have the vote in 1892 or when the 1889 when actually when the library was founded but since the 1860s they had been allowed to vote in library board elections by Governor John Marshall so next time you take a trip down Marshall Avenue it's named after him the only only thing I'll have named after him that was one of his initiatives women could vote for school boards and and for library ports even though almost nobody had a consolidated school district anyway and there were very few public libraries but a little bit of another unusual little gambit of history so unless anybody has any questions I promised I'd only talk for five or ten that's a big part of my job is not talking too much yes oh well the history of public libraries the young time Benjamin Franklin founded the first one I believe never been a public library anywhere on the planet Earth until the 1740s when he said well you know what if we took up a collection lots of books and then let anybody who could show us they were a citizen of Philadelphia could could borrow them and then if they captain late we would charge the money talk about inventing the template for library ISM although by the time by the time this library gets created this is when Andrew Carnegie the richest man in the world started financing all his libraries he built like twenty five hundred libraries in the United States and there were only a handful of libraries when he started and so I'm sure the Newport founders wanted to cash in on that there was just no way they could get a grant from Andrew Carnegie to build a Carnegie Library in a town with 300 people in it so they did it themselves which is quite impressive another thing Newport does generation by generation it's like yeah we'll just do it and that's how that happened but it's always been a public library it's gone to extraordinary lengths to to keep it a community owned public library and it's a survivor and this is not a building maybe it's good luck rubs off on that yeah so you got a long answer to it why we all get phd's well we're taught anything else well thank you thank you thank you Bob for coming out today you are all blessed or cursed depending on how you want to look at it with three people who can talk about this library for hours on end but Bob thank you for coming out tonight and Joe Bailey thank you also for speaking here's the point where I get to thank a few people I'd like to thank state senator Carla Bingham who came this evening County Commissioner Wayne Johnson our former mayor Tim Garrity our former council liaison Roz Johnson and our current council members who made it today our current council liaison Lorie Elliot councilman bill Sumner and Councilman Tom Ingham it means a lot to us having said that I get the joy of handing the mic over one more time this time to Mayor Dan lund well thank you all for being here to celebrate a hundred and thirty years of success of the Newport library I you know founding it with the second resolution ever by the council is impressive keeping it alive for a hundred and thirty years you know I'm sure there are a lot of times where it would have been easier just to kill it but there's been a dedication in Newport to a library community center and many of the people in the room are part of continuing that history and so I just want to thank everyone for being here too to celebrate in the fellowship and success of the Newport library and and I think you mentioned all the other dignitaries I will mention former councilmember Pauline shot Mueller is here as well and I'm sure there's many more folks in the room who didn't get mentioned by name but your presence is definitely appreciated so thank you everyone for being here and and and for learning more about our library and helping making it the success that it's been for the last 130 years okay I am going to share with you some more people I'd like you all to know and then we will let you get back to fun and festivities okay first of all I'd like to thank the administrative staff Deb Hill Deb halls and Travis Riley they all came down at some point today and they've all been a great support to me and the volunteers in making this happen I'm blessed that I come down there and tell them what I'm gonna do and they say oh okay which is helpful I'd like to thank the Public Works staff they're the people we don't see I very seldom see them I come in and the things I've asked them or done which is just a wonderful blessing they always make sure this place is looking great they do a great job of taking care of the land they take care of any anything from you know fixing my shelves to making sure the lights are on for us and so I really appreciate their hard work they also this chairs showed up like the chair fairy came this morning and that was wonderful I really appreciate all that they do for us I have the honor of introducing some very special people to the library specifically the Newport library and community center Advisory Committee and the 130th anniversary subcommittee you've met President Joe Bailey committee member Beth barrel committee member Nathan Knox our subcommittee members Jackie billed as actually not here with us today she came down with something and wasn't able to join us Nancy Wetzel and Denise Fullmer and Anita wasment were also involved we're all stewards of this library's past but in my mind these next people I'm gonna introduce our truly stewards of the library's future and they are my volunteers and I get really passionate about these people because they mean so much to me and to the library and to all the children we couldn't do this without them I couldn't do this without them so I want to thank Denise Fullmer and her son Sam Denise is actually scheduled staff for this evening and she was the schedule staff for last night with the children last night we had 15 children and seven adults so we had a party specifically for the kids last night I'd like to thank barb well Chuck I need so Anita wasment and Cindy spunky and sube couldn't make it tonight but I wanted to make sure that we recognize them because we couldn't do this without them the volunteers are just wonderful and I can't thank them enough um that having been said unless anybody has any questions or concerns you guys can have some more fun thank you again for coming please enjoy the cupcakes and yeah enjoy each other's company because that's what we're here for thank you