Swan site gets a final clean out

Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Brad Hudson, a member of The Arc’s mobile cleaning crew, sweeps in the former children’s library section of Swan Library on Friday afternoon. The site is nearly cleared out and should be turned over to its new owner, Chad Fabry, on a March 23 closing.

A dumpster is outside the former Swan Library site at the corner of Main and West State streets on Friday. Many of the items have been junked while other more valuable pieces have been put in storage, taken to the new Hoag Library or will be offered to local historical groups.

A piano remains in the main upstairs meeting room of the former library.

I had not been inside these rooms for nearly three years. It was an emotional feeling, seeing the library stripped of the tall shelves, the main desk, all of the books, videos and CDs.

This is the room on the second floor, behind the main desk. This spot used to have thousands of books.

This is the room that used to have many Civil War artifacts and also was used as work space for some employees.

Robert Greer, right, and Chris Hardie move some chairs in a spot that used to have a table with materials about events in the community and library. Hardie is standing near the elevator.

Heather Boyd created these paintings of churches and county buildings on the historic Courthouse Square. The paintings are in the stairwell leading from the second to third floors.

A door with a swan image is on the third floor.

The mobile cleaning crew – Brad Hudson at left, Bob Tower (supervisor), Robert Greer and Jonathan Doherty – head to the elevator to go downtstairs to work in the former children’s library.

I used to go to the Swan Library at least on a weekly basis for more than a decade, often with one of my kids who enjoyed riding the elevator most of all.

Good luck to Chad Fabry as he works to make the site available for offices. He’d also like to have a community meeting room in the building.