WATERVILLE – A century ago, the Waterville Library opened in a small but growing village on the banks of the Maumee River. Located in the “new” Waterville School – razed in 2017 and now Parker Square – the library could be found up a short flight of steps from the ground floor.
“Those steps seemed huge,” recalled Karen Wiggins, a retired Waterville Library branch manager who remembers walking up those steps as a child. “It was both the public and the school library…but it was pretty small. Now it’s one of the top circulation branches in the whole system. The community uses it a lot.”
The community is invited to celebrate the library’s 100th anniversary on Saturday, June 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 800 Michigan Ave.
The 1926 founding of the Waterville Library is mentioned in a 2001 history of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library by David M. Noel. According to his research, within a year of opening, the Waterville Chamber of Commerce appealed to the county school board for a separate building, but it wasn’t until 1964 that the 2,600-square-foot branch on Michigan Avenue was completed…