Wilcox Library Now
Open In The Former Barratt Building.
By Heidi Zemach
Special to The Ridgway Record
WILCOX – A newly renovated historic
building at the center of Wilcox is well lit and busy with activity some
nights when most other buildings are closed down and residents are home
relaxing. The Barratt Building, soon to become home to the Wilcox Library,
now has an elegant new tongue-and-grove pine wood floor to go with its
multi-shade paint job and stylishly-painted ceiling tiles.
A labor of love, but also of necessity, Wilcox Librarian Barb DePonceau,
her husband Mike, and father Paul Michael spent six 12– to 17–hour
days the week before Thanksgiving laying in the hardwood floor boards. Now
they have newly painted shelves, and are working on installing them in the
building’s original shelving cabinets, left intact when the building was
gutted and renovated. They have ordered additional new book shelves for
all the libraries collections, which will be delivered, and set up in time
for the tentative Jan. 5 opening date according to plan, DePonceau said.
In addition, the library plans to acquire some new furniture, such as
chairs and tables that the much smaller existing library had no room to
accommodate.
The majority of the building’s funding for restoration and
handicap-access came from Elk County Community Development Block Grants.
But volunteer labor is finishing the job. DePonceau, who is taking the
work a step at a time, is unsure when additional volunteers might be
needed to accomplish the move from the existing library, located a block
away. She has set the third week of January as Grand Opening Week.
Meanwhile, local residents have complimented the stylish building evolving
in their midst — especially its exterior designed to restore the
building to the way it once looked in 1940’s-era photographs. For a
small town with no grocery stores or school, and few businesses besides a
photography shop, hotel/bar, small eatery, post office, plus a
senior/community center, churches, ballpark and American Legion, the
prospect of a roomy new library, filled with books, magazines, computers,
videotapes, historical displays and kids reading and craft activities is
significant.
WILCOX – Elk County Planners, Jones
Township Clerk Laurie Storrar, and Wilcox librarian Barb DePonceau visited
the renovated historic Barratt Building on Marvin and Clarion Streets,
where work is being completed on what will become the new Wilcox Library.
The library was originally housed in the Barratt Building, until it was
moved to its current location at the corner of Marvin and Buchanan Streets
in 1989. None of the Elk County Supervisors who had been invited attended
the event, which took place the morning after the election.
The visitors walked through the interior and spoke with chief contractor
Andy Daghir, of Daghir Construction. Subcontractors John and Anthony
Salandra of Brockway were busy painting the windows and doorways. After
discussing whether to use semi-gloss or satin paint on the windows and
trimmings, DePonceau stuck Post-It notes around the place reminding the
painters about the colors she had chosen: “Irish Crème” for the top
of the pillar, “Down Home” for the lower portion, and “Tamarind”
for the wall facing the new entrance.
“I think the building itself it looks amazing compared to a year ago,”
said Tracy Gerber, the CDBG Coordinator for Elk County, which provided the
bulk of the funding for the $226,172 renovation project. “It’s been
completely gutted and refinished, and I’m very happy with the contractor
that’s working on the project too. He’s done a wonderful job and
he’s been great to deal with.”
This week Elk County Commissioners approved an additional $14,300 to
install a handicapped- accessible ramp, platform, and parking spaces at
the side entrance of the building.
“I’m just ecstatic. It’s more than I thought it was going to be,”
Storrar said. “I see people coming along and stopping out front just to
look at it. It’s created a lot of community excitement I think.”
Since renovation work began, several other property owners in the vicinity
have been inspired to spruce up their own buildings, Storrar said. They
include nearby homeowners, included Dan Freeburg, who provided many great
concepts for the project according to Storrar; the American Legion, which
was given a fresh coat of paint; and an old barber shop that the Jones
Township Historical Society recently painted. With the bid for new
streetlights being opened Nov. 15, and sidewalks to be put along Clarion
Street, that part of Wilcox will soon look beautiful, Storrar said.
The Barratt Building’s exterior, including new store-front windows,
entranceway and paint job, was recreated from 1940s photographs of Dr.
Barratt’s, according to Andy Daghir. The doctor’s wooden service
counter window, featuring curvy fretwork, behind which he may have once
prepared prescriptions, was removed from the middle of the room and placed
at the new entranceway, as one of several touches to preserve the
building’s historic look. Workmen also have saved the building’s
original wooden shelves. They line the library’s walls on either side.
Storrar and DePonceau are planning a painting party this weekend to paint
the white block ceiling tiles in a way that will resemble a tin ceiling of
the historic building’s period. The week before Thanksgiving, local
volunteers will install a wooden floor. That will be followed by
bookshelves and eventually, library furniture and books. Some mechanical
work and final painting remains before his firm’s role in the job is
completed, which should be before the end of the year, Daghir said
