Project Starts To Turn Giant Hole On Main Street Into New Manchester Library

MANCHESTER, CT — Friday was a day to celebrate a big hole in the ground on Main Street in Manchester, that, over the course of the next few months, will be turned into the town's "21st century" library.

Local and state officials — including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz — visited the site to participate in the ceremonial ground-breaking.

The new library site is at 1041 Main St., where a former Webster Bank branch was demolished to make way for the 76,000-square foot structure. It was designed by Friar HMB Architecture and the construction manager is Connecticut and Rhode Island-based O and G Industries.

The price tag is about $50 million, and footing the bill is $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, $39 million in bonding funds, $5 million from the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund and a grant of $3.5 million from the state Community Investment Fund.

Manchester Town Manager Steve Stephanou called Friday an occasion that has been "decades in the making."

Mayor Jay Moran elaborated on that by being his usual animated self.

"Remember, this failed 12 years ago, but we did not let the nay-sayers win," Moran said. "So we stand here now with this big hole in the ground. This is Manchester and we get things done."

Bysiewicz marveled at the sheer size of the construction site while adding she comes from "a library family."

She added, "I spent every Saturday in a library growing up, so I'm so proud to be here."

Library Director Douglas McDonough said, "thousands" of people should be thanked "over the course of decades" who advocated for a new library.

Here is a virtual tour of the new library: