Ludington Library Opens to Crowds

Ludington Library celebrated its grand reopening on Saturday, and thousands turned out to explore the new facility.

The opening kicked off with a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony, and at least 3,500 people had toured Ludington by 3 p.m., according to Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov (Ward 10-Bryn Mawr, Gladwyne and Haverford).

Many of those people also stopped by .

The New Ludington Library

The new children's department is larger by half, and there are two new meeting rooms available for local groups to reserve. The small meeting room, which houses a local history collection, seats up to 12, and the large meeting room, which is actually the 1926 addition funded by Charles Ludington, can seat 120. Ludington was originally founded in 1916 and will join the Bryn Mawr 100 in four years.

There are several sections devoted to the library's most popular subject areas: cooking and entertaining, travel, gardening and landscaping, home improvement and crafts, and there is also an expanded business section.

There is also some notable artwork: A atop a 7-ton marble plinth donated by Guiseppe Donato was professionally restored and reinstalled, and Peter Seidel's steel sculpture "Beangold's Phoenix" was made from a large barn (owned by a man with the surname Beangold) that burned down off Route 202 in Great Valley. The steel for the barn was originally from the Phoenix Steel Works in Phoenixville. Portraits of the Ludington family are also among the many pieces of art at the library.

Ludington is not a LEED-certified building, but it does now have many green aspects. The HVAC system and lighting were chosen based on their energy efficiency, and the outside stonework is Wissahickon schist stone from a local quarry. A green roof over the new addition is made from highly drought-tolerant and resilient plants that will help with storm-water runoff and reduce energy use.

The library is now fully handicap-accessible, and the Ludington basement will soon have a used book salesroom.

Opening Ceremonies

Among the hundreds present at the opening ceremony were past and present Lower Merion Township Commissioners, state Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) and state Rep. Tim Briggs (D-149).

Gregg Adelman, president of Ludington's Board of Trustees made opening remarks, thanking the many people who worked to get to this point.

Commissioner Zelov then emphasized the importance of Ludington, not only as a neighborhood library but as a Montgomery County and regional library.

More than 1,000 people a day were going through the doors at Ludington prior to its closing, and the Ludington Lite trailers were still the second most-visited library in the Lower Merion system while the main library was closed.

"Ludington is an anchor here in Bryn Mawr," Zelov said.

The library is a critical part of the community, not just as a library but as an attraction for people who also shop and dine in Bryn Mawr.

Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners President Liz Rogan also described Ludington as "the heart of the community" and quoted Ernest Hemingway: "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened, and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you."

Charlie Bloom, former Lower Merion commissioner and chairman of the Lower Merion Library Foundation, said he always tries to wear a tie that is somehow connected to what is going on. The garden tools and flower pots on his yellow tie on Saturday "signify the seed of knowledge we're replanting today."

He also implored Leach and Briggs to get library funding back in the state budget.

Stuart Diamond, who happens to be Bloom's neighbor in addition to being a best-selling author and journalist who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Challenger crash, also gave remarks.

He talked about storytelling as a way to achieve peace, since people who know about each other are much less likely to fight. 

The new library, which contains books as diverse as Winnie the Pooh to Dracula, is a place for both children and adults to find their way, or to find their way again.

"It represents the chance to regain interest and wonderment in the stories of others," Diamond said.