Northwood News ♦ June 2015

New Silver Spring Library to Open Saturday, 20 June

By Linda S. Perlman

The new Silver Spring Library — a 90,000-square-foot building with five floors and a basement (the library is on the third, fourth, and fifth floors) — will have its grand opening on Saturday, June 20, 2015.

The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library. — Albert Einstein

In addition to the library, the first two floors will have mixed use office and retail space and an arts nonprofit organization. There will be a pavilion coffee bar operated by Kefa Café. Books are going on the shelves and green roof plants have been planted. There will be public-use computers and a computer training lab, along with a teen area, media lab, early literacy space, and disability resource center. It will be a state-of-the-art library and part of the Montgomery County Public Library system.

The new Silver Spring Public Library, shown here still under construction in May, is scheduled to open Saturday, 20 June.

The new library is located at 900 Wayne Avenue, at the intersection of Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street, in downtown Silver Spring. There are two building entrances from Wayne Avenue and one building entrance on Fenton Street, with an escalator and elevators to the library and the rest of the building. The drive-up library lane, from Bonifant to Wayne, will have a curbside drop off zone for customers to put books into the book drop.

The new Silver Spring Library has no parking. Public parking will be in the Wayne Street garage, across Wayne Avenue from the library. There will be a charge for parking (currently $1.00 per hour) from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Customers using handicap parking in the Wayne Street Garage must pay the hourly rate. Weekend and evening parking is free.

My experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that is out. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, “The Poet at the Breakfast Table”

County Executive Leggett, in his FY 2016 recommended budget, included funds for two hours of free parking (with validation) for library users in the Wayne Street garage. However, the Montgomery County Council Health and Human Services Committee voted against including funds for free parking at the new Silver Spring Library.

I am pleased to note that the new Silver Spring Library has not completely forgotten its history. The library’s 1937 Silver Spring Post Office mural, “The Old Tavern” by Nicolai Cikovsky (shown below), on display since 1997, will be removed, cleaned, and transferred to the new library. ■

“The Old Tavern” by Russian-born Nicolai Cikovsky — a muralist, painter, lithographer, and teacher at the Corcoran School of Art — shows the artist’s conception of Civil War Union soldiers (circa 1864-65) reading their mail and relaxing in front of the Eagle Inn, which stood on the southwest corner of present day Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in the village of what was then called “Sligo.” The 1937 6' by 16' mural has hung at the Silver Spring library since July 7, 1997.