At 28th Street and Virginia Avenue, the sights and sounds of excitement and a new beginning hovered over hundreds of Louisvillian residents, families and city leaders. Newcomers and familiar faces caught a glimpse of the Parkland Library for the first time in nearly 40 years.
What was once an old library, closed off to the public due to budget cuts since the 1980s, is now a renovated facility with a technology studio, new computers and thousands of books and movies.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, Metro Council members and Parkland residents celebrated the grand opening Thursday.
For District 1 Council Member Tammy Hawkins, she has dreamed of this day for the Parkland neighborhood.
“Today shows me that what the community wants to see matters,” Hawkins said. “That speaks volumes. It's not about what every other politician wants to see, but it's about what the people want to see.”
In 1986, the library shut down due to city budget cuts. By 2022, former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer started the renovation process and additional funding during the Greenberg administration — including significant charitable donations — helped complete it. The $6.6 million project added 3,152 square feet to the original building, and it’s expected to serve about 20,000 people a year.
Wooden bookshelves with DVDs, Blu Ray discs and novels for kids, teens and adults line nearly every wall at the library. There are community computers and couches where local students sat and read their favorite books with their families on Thursday.
Teen readers have a communal space upstairs with another set of computers and shelves filled with new books.
Near the entrance, a glass door opens to a studio for STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and arts classes. Program coordinator Jessica Eslinger is in charge of all the equipment in the studio, which includes a 3D printer, a laser cutter and engraver, button makers and sewing machines.
She also oversees the classes for kids, teens and adults.
“Our world is increasingly STEM-heavy,” Eslinger said. “So the library is offering this really cool space where you can come in and you can learn about things, and it doesn't matter how much or how little you know, maybe you don't know anything, that's fine. We're gonna learn together, and it's gonna be so exciting.”
In the library’s basement, an exhibit pays homage to west Louisville history. Plaques on the walls depict late community members like the Courier Journal’s first Black journalist, Merv Aubespin, west Louisville author Ethel King and Louisville’s first female high school principal, Lucie DuValle.
While community members paid tribute to those in the exhibit, they also mourned the loss of another West End pioneer: Jessie Carter Stokes. Stokes was a literacy advocate and founder of the Shawnee Friends of the Library, a nonprofit that supports local libraries. Stokes also worked for the Parkland Library for 24 years before it closed.
Stokes died at the age of 95 on Feb. 14. Her daughter, Carol Stokes Brewer said her mother was excited to come to the grand reopening and the library meant a lot to her.
“Growing up, she loved to read books,” Stokes Brewer said. “And growing up, we would have field trips, and she would bring my sister and I down to the Parkland Library, only for her, years later, to work here, to be of value [and] to help another family.”
Some of west Louisville’s living legends also came to support the Parkland Library’s future.
Parkland native and former NBA star Darrell “Dr. Dunkenstein” Griffith said it was like watching “a dinosaur come back to life.” He said he grew up coming to the library with his parents.
“I'm more thrilled for these kids to have an opportunity to broaden their minds, to see books, to be amused by what's on the shelf,” he said.
Former West End School teacher Susan Baker said this library could transform how kids learn in Parkland. She said it “means everything” to her.
“[Learning] doesn't just occur in the classroom,” Baker said. “Learning has to be in the community and the family, and you have to want to learn. And the library always makes you feel that way you walk in, and it's inspiring.”
The Parkland Library was built in 1908. It’s one of 1,689 original Carnegie libraries in the United States. It’s also part of a local initiative to update or reopen three other libraries: Portland, Fern Creek and Main. The remaining library projects are expected to be completed later this year.
