April 18, 2008 – Elaine I. Sprauve Library on St. John will close from Wednesday through May 12 so the staff can move the library into a temporary 28-foot office trailer located adjacent to the library. The temporary quarters are necessary because the library is about to get a major overhaul.
"Well, the roof hasn't fallen in on me yet," librarian Carol McGuinness said, laughing as she discussed the building's dire repair needs.
According to a 1994 article by the late Ruth Low, who lived on St. John for many years, Sprauve Library is housed in the Enighed plantation greathouse built around 1842 for brothers Ernst and Peter Weinmar, a prosperous St. Thomas merchant family. Low reported that it was probably built on the ruins of an earlier greathouse because a plantation had been on that site since 1728. A fire in 1899 left only the walls standing.
After sitting in that condition for years, it was refurbished for use as a library. It opened in 1982.
The building is not airconditioned and needs lots of work. Projects include an electrical upgrade, windows, doors and shutter repairs, air conditioner installation, interior and exterior painting, landscaping, signage, and installation of a new generator. McGuinness also said that the project includes plastering over the exposed stone walls.
The construction project by the St. Thomas-based Custom Builders is expected to take six months, at a cost of $689,000. The project is funded by the Public Finance Authority.
Once the move to the trailer is complete, some services will be available.
McGuinness said that while in the trailer, fiction and non-fiction best sellers, some children's books, the Caribbean collection, DVDs, and the computer will be available to the public.
St. John-based Storage on Site will bring its pod containers to the library to store the books, box up the books and move them into the trailers.
"They're doing the total move," McGuinness said.
McGuinness said she weeded out books and other items no longer needed so the library isn't storing unnecessary materials.
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