When the Jr. Woman’s Club opened the doors of Cary’s first library, they barely had enough books to fill the modest room offered by Mayor Waldo Rood. As it grew, the humble collection moved several times, taking spaces in grocery stores, doctor’s offices, and private homes.
“I remember when the first library opened in Cary,” recalls Marie Seegers in an oral history recorded in Just a Horse-Stopping Place by Peggy Van Scoyoc. “It was upstairs in one of the older buildings in downtown Cary. My daughter and I would go there. They didn’t have many books, but it was a big beginning for us to have a public library.”
In 1960, the library’s founders could have never imagined one day their small town would be cutting the ribbon on a 23,450 square foot, state-of-the-art building with a collection of over 150,000 books.
After moving around no less than five times in the past 50 years, our library seems to have finally found a permanent home, large enough to sustain our quickly growing town. If we trace its movement across the decades, we may find secrets hidden in businesses we still visit today.
Cary Library: Then and Now
In the 1940’s, before the library was established, a small book-mobile rode around Downtown Cary during the summer. Like a miniature library on wheels, the cart would stop at specific spots once every two weeks, allowing excited guests to turn in their books and check out new ones.
Some Caryites who remember those days recall the “absolute thrill” of seeing the small book cart ride by. Even better, Seeger describes the school library’s decision to begin opening during summertime as “a real treat!”
The town was hungry for books and activities, especially on those long, hot summer days. The Jr. Woman’s Club started offering summer activities for young girls, like horseback riding, twirling, babysitting lessons. But still, there was an enormous demand for a variety of reading material.
“There was a real need, we felt, for a library,” Daphne Ashworth says. As one of the Presidents of the Jr. Woman’s Club, she and her group decided to pool together their books, and collect books from the community, and start the town’s first official library.
From Books to Doctors to Gourmet Sandwiches
The next time you eat a veggie-hummus stuffed pita pocket at Serendipity Gourmet Deli, take a closer look to see if you can recognize its roots, which stretch all the way back to 1948.
In fact, this charming little date spot was once the office for Dr. Hunter, one of the town’s primary doctors, for whom the structure was built.
According to Daphne Ashworth, who was president of the Jr. Woman’s Club at the time, “We were able to establish a small library [in a] small wood building that was owned by Waldo Rood, [who] was the mayor of Cary at the time. Then we outgrew that space, and we moved to Dr. Hunter’s office.”
Sadly, the original wooden building has been lost to the ages; today, Ashworth’s Village covers the original location. However, contained within Serendipity’s cozy brick walls is a small taste of how the library once looked. In fact, some Caryites claim they can still smell the nostalgic musk of old books and childhood memories.
Serendipity has the honor of being the final official location for the Jr. Woman’s Club’s library. After a few years, the small library grew into the “new” building, and the Town of Cary took it over.
Dr. Thompson, a beloved and well-remembered community doctor, took over the space for a while, before Serendipity opened its doors in the 1980’s, becoming an iconic hotspot for dates, brunches, and high schoolers looking for their first job.
It’s rare that a single, tiny building holds so much nostalgia, and so many community memories — but the Serendipity/Dr. Thompson/Cary Library/Dr. Hunter building has been “all things to all people” since the 1940’s.
A New Chapter for the Cary Library
Each generation of Cary has memories in a different library building. Many long-time Caryites feel a warm, fuzzy nostalgia for the most recent Cary Library building, where many of us have built years of memories. Even longer-time Caryites feel a similar nostalgia for Serendipity. However, the library itself is no stranger to change, and the new facility opens a new chapter for Cary’s programming and literary impact.
Part of the Downtown Revitalization Efforts, the new location offers 600 parking spots in a modern parking deck, and overlooks the Downtown Park, where it can take part in a host of outdoor activities. With a new children’s room with space for 150 kids, the library can now offer dozens of extra classes, including more toddler times, preschool story-times, tech tutors, reading groups, and gatherings for kids and adults alike. The official ribbon cutting is this weekend.
Our new library may not look much like the old one, but–thanks to community leaders like Daphne Ashworth, the Jr. Woman’s Club, and librarians like Margaret Sherwood–our citizens still carry that same love of reading. We’re still hungry for books, and we’re still thrilled to see more books in our backyard.
Now, excuse me, I’m going to go check out a book and take it to Serendipity’s to read–and remember.
