PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Philanthropist and Presque Isle native Mary Akeley Smith has donated $50,000 to the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library that will go toward renovations to the children’s storytime room.
Smith’s family has a long-lasting legacy with the local library. Her grandmother, Beulah Barton Akeley, was the city’s librarian from 1932 to 1945. In 2010, Smith donated $1.3 million for the library to undergo major interior and exterior renovations. The library and the city council allocated $250,000 and $350,000, respectively, of their own funds toward the $1.5 million project.
In 2012, Smith donated another $25,000 to the library for a second phase of renovations that included new furnishings, color schemes and lighting, a teen area, a larger reading room and periodicals section. Phase one of the project helped the library become compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and added more space for books, computers and other materials.
With the extensive renovations that were originally done throughout the library, the earlier funds only provided for new carpeting and paint for the storytime room, noted library director Sonja Eyler.
The latest donation from Smith, in memory of her late husband Rodney Smith, will allow the library to change the layout of the storytime room in a way that is more suitable for both children and adults,
“We’ll have rocking chairs and furniture for families to relax and read together. The room will have more space for books and shelves that are lower so younger children can reach them,” Eyler said. “We’re hoping to also have sensory toys on the wall that promote early childhood literacy.”
Though the space itself will not be expanded by length, Eyler said that library trustees have chosen a design for the room that will better accommodate both younger and older family members. The renovations have a tentative start date of October.
Children’s librarian Melissa St. Pierre stated that the library is hoping to be fully open to the public, after the pandemic reopening period, once the renovations to the storytime room are complete.
“It’s one of our most used rooms in the library,” St. Pierre said. “Families use the space for playdates and will often spend an entire afternoon playing board games and reading books.”
