From reading room to learning center, Community Library of Allegheny Valley celebrates 100th anniversary

When PPG founder John Baptiste Ford built the YMCA in Tarentum and insisted that it have a reading room, he couldn’t have imagined that a few stacks of books would eventually result in a multimillion-dollar facility in Harrison visited by more than 40,000 people each year.

That was 100 years ago.

From its meager beginnings, the Community Library of Alle­gheny Valley has grown into a community hub that offers a collection of more than 58,000 books, CDs, magazines and more. There are scrapbooking and technology classes, history lessons, genealogy searches and, of course, book clubs.

“We’re not just a library,” said board member Cindy Homburg of Tarentum. “We’re a learning center, for everyone from babies to senior citizens.”

Constructed in 1998, the modern block-glass and steel building sits on the corner lot of Broadview Boulevard, where the home of Dr. Clark Rollins once stood. Rollins was the former chief of surgery at Allegheny Valley Hospital and maintained medical offices in his home.

“That building gave the library a whole new story,” said Kathy Firestone, an Allegheny Township resident who served as site director from 1992 to 2021. “The library was starting to change what it meant to the community. We became so much more than books. Computers really kicked in, and we moved from cassettes to DVDs to CDs. We wanted more programming.

“We would not have been able to do that without opening a new building.”

As the library marks its 100th anniversary Wednesday, March 15, people who have shepherded its evolution are celebrating but also working to expose even more people to everything the facility has to offer.

Yearlong festivities are planned.

“For a library to reach 100 years of service to the community is an amazing feat,” said Amy Anderson, chief executive officer of the Allegheny County Library Association. “So much has changed in our world over the past 100 years. To have a library reach this milestone is truly a testament to the strong communities it serves and the desire of the people in that community to maintain and preserve the idea that knowledge should always be available to all.”

In its original room in the YMCA, the library was launched with $4,000 in community donations. Compare that to today’s operating budget of $427,000 a year.

When it was forced to leave the YMCA — which was men-only — it moved from the First Ward School on East Ninth Avenue to the borough building on Lock Street before finding a long-term home.

“It was a problem,” Homburg said. “Tarentum was booming. There were no empty buildings.”

Library officials spent $25,000 to purchase the former Rudert’s Hardware Store on East Sixth Avenue.

A donation from the Amelia C. Walcher estate paid for the furnishings. The marquee was a stainless steel sign made by Allegheny Ludlum.

For four decades, the library made its home in the three-story building with dirt floors in the basement and an elevator shaft that regularly filled with water.

Paper library cards and rubber stamps were used to check out books.

There was no electronic technology, save for a refurbished fax machine and copier that came along in the late part of the century.

“It was some books and a few children’s programs,” Firestone said. “Maybe a book club, but that was pretty much it back in the day.”

Lackluster conditions, however, didn’t thwart interest.

Harrison resident Shirley Smith, 91, who worked nearly 20 years as director of circulation, said people of all ages and statuses found joy at the library.

“It was like working in a candy store,” Smith said. “People would come in all day long. You ate your lunch in the back room but kept an eye on the desk because there was always something going on.

“Before computers, we had so many people that would come in for reference materials and to do their studying. We made good use of books.”

The library’s longest-tenured staffer, Kathy Bollinger, started at the East Sixth Avenue site as a high school page in the 1960s. She recalls not having enough materials to fill the shelves but said the building was always full of people.

The empty second floor was used as rehearsal space for the Tarentum High School band, Bollinger said.

“They practiced for the football games while the library was open,” she said.

She remembers watching the band march from the library down Corbet Street to Dreshar Stadium.

As the library catalog and programming grew, the library saw its most significant change in 1995 with the introduction of its first computer.

“Technology changed everything,” Bollinger said. “Patrons had free internet access with their library cards, and they had everything at their fingertips.”

As time went on, the library fell deeper into disrepair. The century-old building wasn’t equipped for emerging technology, and a new roof was estimated to cost six figures.

Board members began eyeing a plan for a new building in Harrison. It was the municipality with the highest number of patrons and was served only by the Allegheny County Bookmobile, which pulled into the Heights Plaza parking lot once or twice a month.

Firestone launched a full-fledged fundraising campaign across the eastern part of the county. Her goal was $1.2 million.

“We were considered one of the busiest sites in the county, but we didn’t have much money,” Firestone said. “I’m proud of everybody who pitched in and made a success of a library in a blue-collar area.”

Around the same time, the Allegheny County Library Association was born. In 1993, the Allegheny County Regional Asset District and its 1% sales tax were established, providing core funding to libraries.

In June 1996, a groundbreaking was held at the new Harrison property with more than 150 people on hand, including then-county Commissioner Larry Dunn. He proclaimed June 5 Community Library of Allegheny Valley Day.

“From the time it opened in 1998, it’s been a better space for programming and it’s brought more people through the doors,” Homburg said.

The area for many years was served by the Harrison library and its branch on East Sixth Avenue, until that building closed in 2004 and collections were moved to a smaller, more affordable spot: the former post office on nearby Lock Street.

That space remained open through 2020, when the financial drain combined with low usage forced its closure.

In its absence, the library has grown its outreach to offer story time at Tarentum’s Riverview Memorial Park.

“Every municipality doesn’t have to have a library building, but there has to be access to books,” Firestone said.

Staffers have established mini libraries at local senior living facilities, such as Dalton’s Edge in Tarentum, and they plan to install Little Free Libraries across the coverage area.

The library serves a population of 20,000 people in Harrison, Tarentum, Brackenridge, Fawn, East Deer and Frazer.

Library Director Suzy Ruskin, in her second year on the job, said patronage in Harrison is soaring.

The library has become a place to socialize and make connections, she said. There has been a 67% increase in circulation over prepandemic numbers and 40% more visits, Ruskin said.

Her push this year is to register each school-age child in the area with a library card.

“Before, it was about trying to get people in the library, and now it’s more about how do we reach out to them,” Ruskin said. “So far, it’s been remarkable. We have seen more people than ever before, and all ages.”