'Friends' book sale coming soon

Bob Brockway, head of a committee to raise funds to rebuild the Sisters Library in 1985, and Mary Smith, chairman of the upcoming book sale. Photo by Tom Chace

Friends of the Sis ters Library will hold its annual book sale this coming Friday and Saturday, June 11 and 12, in the old building that housed the original Sisters Library when it opened in 1939.

Friday night's book sale event is for members of Friends of the Sisters Library only, but the Saturday sale is open to the public. Hours Friday are 5 to 8 p.m .; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The old building is adjacent to the current library located at the corner of Spruce Street and Main Avenue.

"We'll have literally thousands of books for sale priced from 50 cents on up to a few dollars," said sale chairperson Mary Smith. "Maggie Hughes, owner of the Lonesome Water Books on Cascade Avenue here, spends hours going through our collection looking for rare books which can be sold for a premium price.

"For $10 for an individual or $15 for a family, one may join Friends of the Library on Friday night and take advantage of the pre-sale for members only," Smith said.

There are between 20 and 30 volunteers who work to make this annual sale profitable.

"We raised over $4,000 last year to go to our building fund," she said.

Others who take an especially active part in the book sale are Norma Funai, Phoebe Olsen, Jackie Gerland and Lee Kappelman. Funai and Gerland, members of the Sisters Garden Club, also help with the planting and landscaping around the library building.

Dwight Smith (no relation to Mary) is president of the library board; Kappelman and Mary Smith are co-treasurers. Peg Bermel is head librarian and Charlotte Nitcher, Sandy McDonald, Lynne Conrads and Linda Kurtz are assistants.

Before the library had its own domain, books for loan were stored at the local drug store, according to http://www.informat.com/places/sisters/shlibrary.html.

It took the Women's Civic Club in 1938 to start raising money through "card parties and cake walks" to build "a special building to house the library books."

Men in the community became interested and donated labor to construct the 14-by-20-foot building, which was dedicated on January 27, 1939.

That same year the Sisters Library was "officially established as a branch of the Deschutes County Library System."

It is reported that between 1939 and 1967 there was "a bookmobile delivery from the country library once a month. Later, The City of Sisters helped buy extra books and purchased an electric furnace to replace the wood stove."

The original building, located on Cascade Avenue where Depot Deli now stands, was moved to its present location in the summer of 1980. A bathroom was added and the building renovated using the proceeds from the sale of the original property.

The size increased from 280 square feet to 630 square feet with the addition of Leonard Lundgren's private office, which was moved and attached to the old building. Lundgren was the owner of the Lundgren Mill on Pine Street north of the Industrial Park.

In 1985 Friends of the Sisters Library formed to build a new and bigger building.

Bob Brockway was chairman of that group. He and his wife, Meg -- who annually takes an active part in the Friends of the Sisters Library book sale -- spearheaded the fund-raising effort.

From a story and picture in the July 7, 1988 edition of The Nugget, Diane Jacobsen, Gin Staines, Nellie Zook, Betty Ryon, Lucinda Fravel, Bob Bronson, Peg Bermel and Ruth Paul, who is still active with Friends of the Sisters Library, were on the fund-raising committee.

The City of Sisters donated the land where the library is now located and the group raised $230,000 to build the new building.

In 1989 Keeton-King contractors started construction. The official dedication was in February, 1990.

The library was dedicated to Grace Aitken, a local librarian for 16 years.