Town celebrates as Ronan Library turns 100 years old
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RONAN – After 100 years of weathering fire, funding shortages, and changing locations, the Ronan Library will celebrate its centennial this week.
Librarian Michelle Fenger invited folks to come out Nov. 19 at 6 p.m., dressed in costumes of period attire from a century ago for the Library’s Birthday Bash. On Thursday, stop by and create gift bags that will be delivered to local nursing homes. Complete the week with storytelling night, which will begin Nov. 21 at 5:30 p.m., with people invited to come and tell tales of Ronan’s past.
“It’s going to be fun,” Fenger said. “Not many things or people are around for 100 years.”
Fenger has pieced together parts of the library’s history from old newspaper filings. From what she has gathered, Mrs. Bess Sterling and someone else by the name of Miss Oyen spearheaded fundraising efforts in winter 1914 and spring 1915 to raise funds for the establishment of a library. Books were donated by interested individuals, but little else is known about what happened in this era, because Fenger has no written history about the organization until 1923.
News clippings indicate books were brought in from Missoula and Flathead Libraries to Ronan High School in summer 1923, where shelves were assembled. Members of the Good Cheer Club —including Mrs. Sterling, Mrs. Clubb, Mrs. Lemire, and Mrs. Swee — set up a records system.
In 1930, the library burned, but community members immediately donated books and re-started the library in the Elementary School Room, where the organization was housed for another 10 years. In 1940 the Ronan City Council took control of the organization and designated part of town hall as home for the library’s 500 books, but the library soon outgrew its facilities and was housed for four years in the home of Mrs. Lee Butcher. The books were eventually moved to the basement of Gambles hardware store and back into City Hall in 1960.
In 1968, a five-member library board was set up to help steer the establishment, which at that time used the Dewey decimal system to catalog its more than 6,000 volumes. Four years later, the library was moved to its current home on Main Street after a bond election helped purchase the old bank building.
The library has continued to grow in its new home, and in 2012 residents passed a mil levy to provide enough funding that the library could separate from the City of Ronan. The separation was completed in December 2013.
Fenger has asked that anyone with additional information about the library’s history please contact her with the details.
