Morgan Hill’s new library is a perfect example of how when a
community works together it can accomplish great things
Saturday’s grand opening of Morgan Hill’s new $19-million, 28,000-square-feet library represents one of the city’s most significant building achievements.
The library, located just a block away from the previous 34-year-old library building on Peak and Main avenues, was part of an ambitious community capital improvement visioning process that began in the mid 1990s that now sets our city apart from others for truly having beautiful community buildings that enhance our quality of life.
Our city now enjoys a new state-of-the art library, one of 10 branches in the Santa Clara County Library system, along with other unique facilities such as the Centennial Recreation Center, Aquatics Center and the Community and Cultural Center. The proposed Condit Road sports complex is expected to be the final capstone of the city’s extensive building program.
What’s also impressive about the building of this new library is the teamwork that occurred to make it happen, from the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library, led by avid reader Carol O’Hare, to Morgan Hill’s Redevelopment Agency and the county library system.
From inception to completion, these groups worked together keeping that vision in mind to offer Morgan Hill residents a source of knowledge, scholarship, learning and information.
To date the Friends have truly demonstrated they’re friends of readers, literacy and education by raising a quarter of a million dollars. That money paid for the impressive bronze sculptures, paintings and other unique art elements found in the building. The library is the only one in the Santa Clara County library system that has a permanent collection of art, thanks to donors.
Morgan Hill’s new library is a perfect example of how when a community works together it can accomplish great things. It will go a long way to addressing the literacy needs of a growing city and helping parents expose their children to reading and learning.
