Hawthorne’s Louis Bay 2nd Library celebrates 100 years this March and has planned many events in celebration.

According to Hawthorne’s Louis Bay 2nd Library website at http://hawthorne.bccls.org, the library was founded in 1913 by a small group of citizens who created the Hawthorne Public Library Association. The group rented two rooms in the old Post Office building for $13 per month, paid a janitor 25 cents a month, collected donated furniture, and convinced the Board of Education to donate reference books. Teachers served as volunteer library aides to the first library director, Mrs. D’Archambaud.

 Friends of the Library is hosting a centennial celebration on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. at the Brownstone. More details on the event will be posted on the Hawthorne Public Library’s website in the future.This event was made possible by the funds that were raised in the First Annual Festival of Trees & Lights held November 29, 2012 – December 7, 2012.

The Library has also planned the Centennial Art Contest and a Centennial Mystery Event to further the celebration. The organizers of the art contest, which is open to all ages, ask those submitting to create a ready-to-hang piece of art that expresses the theme of “What the Library Means to Me” or “100 Years of the Hawthorne Library.” Submissions will be accepted in October 2013, prior to registering with the library. Details are to follow on the library’s website.

For the Centennial Mystery Event, the Hawthorne Public Library Association will be pretending that a valuable painting has been stolen from the library. The Association encourages children in middle school or high school to try and solve the mystery on Friday, March 22, 2013, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. The same event will also take place on Saturday, March 23, 2013, from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. for senior citizens who would like to solve the same mystery. Those who would like to participate must register in advance at the Information Desk at the Library.

 “All of these centennial celebration events sound like great ideas and just further prove how great of a public library we have here in Hawthorne,” said Alexis Miele, senior at Hawthorne High School.