Preserving the Stewart Library Building
Public Meeting – January 20, 2015
Building Preservation Group – Corinna, Maine

During a brainstorming session all suggestions and ideas are accepted and recorded without evaluation or critical analysis. The intent is to encourage creative thinking over wide ranging possibilities. Issues of practicality and feasibility are applied to the suggestions at a later date.

The items below were recorded in the Reading Room of the Stewart Library Building during an informational public meeting on January 20, 2015. Prior to the brainstorming session the 37 participants toured the building and heard a presentation about the planned renovations by architects from Ames Associates. The participants were asked to think about what building uses will be possible after the renovations (including a 3-stop elevator) are complete and what other renovations would be desirable. The suggestions have been re-ordered into a topic format.

Possible new and renewed activities in the building

• Town meeting and voting
• Ballroom dancing
• Dinners
• Summer concerts (or concerts any time of the year)
• Proms
• Exercise classes
• Not basketball
• Club and organization meetings and functions

Renovations suggested

• Better air handling or air conditioning upstairs (too hot in the summer)
• A function room and kitchen facility in the basement
• Increase parking space
• A convention room
• Gallery space for art displays – rotation and management of display
• Storage rooms in the basement
• Installation of 3-phase electricity
• Develop a regional performing arts center –
  Renovate the stage, rigging, lighting and sound systems for flexible usage
• Build a partition at the back of the auditorium, making 3 new rooms –
  A storage space, a theater control room, a Private Library research room

Programmatic additions

• Auditorium rental for functions
• Tours of the building – jail cells, Private Library, etc.
• Keep the Town Office in the building
• Changes in the Private Library room to provide additional space for Town Office
• Host an authors program
• Full-time custodial service and during events

The Private Library

• Climate and environmental controls for the books and artifacts
• The private collection, L. Stewart’s legacy, the most important building content
• Develop an interpretive museum space, represent the life, legacy of Levi Stewart
• Move some of the books to the second floor, to a new research room
• Keep a display area on the first floor – rotate content from the research room
• Present theatrical re-creations about Levi Stewart
• Develop a policy controlling access to the Private Library collection