After 20 years, two architects and two defeated referendums, Woodstock’s new library was set to celebrate its official opening on Dec. 13, marking a new chapter in its 112-year history in a space triple the size of its predecessor on Library Lane. But the event is being postponed while contractors complete work on the entrance vestibule and main stairway.

Library officials said a delay involving the contractor’s supplies vendor means the vestibule and stairway will not be finished in time for the planned celebration. A new date has not yet been confirmed. 

“We’re looking to schedule our grand opening party as soon as we can in the new year, pending completion of the vestibule and main stairway,” Library Director Ivy Gocker said in an email.

The setback follows years of complicated efforts to expand. The project has weathered one defeated budget, a task force, and an early plan that cost $200,000 before being ultimately rejected. Library officials began discussing an expansion in 2004-2005 and first considered the 12,000-square-foot site at 10 Dixon Avenue, about a mile from 5 Library Lane, in 2021.

More space will help the library enhance one primary mission – to serve more people, Gocker said.

“You don’t have to justify your reason for being there,” Gocker said in an interview. Libraries are “here for whatever it is that you need. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

The new building, constructed in 1975, was the home of Model Optics, which manufactured lenses. Miller Howard Investments bought it in 2015 and added a wing that increased the overall space to its current size. The old library, whose last major addition came in 1986, offered 4,000 square feet. 

Public institutions such as libraries can anchor communities and serve as one of the last “village green”-like meeting spaces. They maintain a singular role that stands out among all their services, Gocker said. 

“They’re really one of the last few public spaces where you don’t have to spend any money,” she said.

Numerous measures for the library’s future have been proposed over the years. A campaign by new library opponents to abolish the library district failed. Proponents of a new library failed to persuade voters to let it borrow money for a new one on the old site.

Critics of the move have noted that the new building isn’t easily accessible to kids on bicycles because busy Route 212 lacks sidewalks. Yet UCAT plans to include it as a stop next year, and it offers far more parking, as well as a generator and a high-speed internet connection and is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Historic and musical archives of Woodstock artists will be taken out of storage and have their own space in the building.

“Everyone, welcome,” said Michael Hunt, president of Friends of the Woodstock Library and a two-decade supporter of its expansion.

On May 10, 2022—Hunt’s 52nd birthday—voters approved a plan to borrow $4 million to buy the Dixon Avenue building and make renovations. Fundraising was launched for additional money for renovations, but fell short. Library District voters in October approved borrowing of $300,000 to make up the shortfall. 

“I walk around the new library and I feel like I’m in a dream, after all these years, to finally get everything that Woodstock has been asking for, for so long,” Hunt said.

Lizzie Vann, who owns Bearsville Center, home of the Bearsville Theater, bought the old Lasher Funeral Home property, adjacent to the old library, and 59 Tinker St., the former site of the Cafe Espresso and Tinker Street Cafe that now houses HappyLife Productions. Property records show that the former Lasher Funeral Home, last changed hands in 2023 for $1.6 million, while the longtime library sold for $805,000 in 2024.

Vann plans to convert six buildings into at least 12 green, low-cost apartments, a business-incubator coworking hub, more than double the size of the green space in front of the library and create a new park. Her project still needs Town Board approval for a key for a zoning change that has been unanimously supported by the Planning Board.

The library is open Monday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

John W. Barry is a contributing writer for The Overlook. Reach him at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.