Purchase A Brick at New McAuliffe Library Branch

Time is running out to purchase a brick at the new Christa McAuliffe Library branch, under construction in Nobscot.

Last year, the Framingham Public Library Foundation kicked off a buy a brick program.

The deadline to purchase a brick is July 31, which will line a walkway at the library.

The brick program is a way for your family or organization to engraved a message and be a visible part of the legacy of the new branch library.

More than 325 bricks have already been sold.

A 4”x8” brick is $100. It can contain three lines of up to 20 characters of text per line

The 8”x8” bricks are $250 and can contain five lines of up to 20 characters of text per line.

These personally-engraved bricks not only are a creative and permanent way to show support for the project to build the new branch library, they can also serve to:

• Memorialize a loved one
• Celebrate someone special: spouse, children, grandparents, grandchildren, parents, pets
• Honor friends, teachers, colleagues
• Commemorate an anniversary, birthday, or other special occasion
• Inspire someone with an uplifting message for the future

Bricks can be purchased online at http://brick.fplf.org.

The Framingham Public Library Foundation is a 501C organization, and brick purchases are tax deductible as a charitable contribution.

The $8.6 million construction of a new Christa McAuliffe Library branch on Water Street was “on budget and on time” when Library Trustees took their first tour of the construction last month.

Construction is scheduled to be completed in early spring of 2016. The new library will open sometime in 2016.

The one-story, L-shaped library will be about triple the size of the current McAuliffe Library branch.

The new Nobscot library branch will be about 17,000 square feet and have parking for 55 vehicles.

The branch library has a futuristic design, to reflect whom the library will be named after, the late first teacher in space and Framingham native Christa Corrigan McAuliffe.

What is now known as the McAuliffe Library branch opened in 1963 in Saxonville, and was later renamed in honor of the astronaut after she died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Building a new McAuliffe Library branch has been years in the making.

In October 2012, the Framingham Library Foundation and the Framingham Library Trustees were awarded a $4.186 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners towards the estimated total construction cost is $8.6 million.

In May 2013, a Special Town Meeting voted 149-1 to build the new Christa McAuliffe branch library. Taxpayers share of the project is about $3.8 million, which will be funded over a 20-year capital bond.

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Photo courtesy of the Framingham Public Library Foundation