This story by Lisa Scaglotti was first published by The Waterbury Roundabout on Jan. 19.
They say history has a way of repeating itself.
The floods of 2023 were one tragic example as scenes of destruction evoked memories of past disasters like Tropical Storm Irene and even the great flood of 1927. Across central Vermont, people instinctively rallied to help others dealing with the aftermath of a disaster yet again.
As it turns out, one recent gesture of flood-recovery help bears a striking similarity to events that unfolded nearly a century ago.
The story involves two libraries situated about 15 miles apart, but both within close proximity to the Winooski River. It came to light in correspondence between library volunteers in Waterbury and the staff at Montpelier’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library.
Last week, Maureen White, president of the Friends of the Waterbury Public Library, sent a letter and a check to Kellogg-Hubbard Library Director Dan Groberg in Montpelier. In July, the capital’s library was inundated with floodwaters, which caused reported damage of more than $1 million to the Main Street facility, its furnishings and collections, in particular the contents of the building’s basement — books set aside for the library’s annual book sale fundraiser.
White was sending along a final installment of $232 to Kellogg-Hubbard, for a grand total of $1,087.87 raised by the Waterbury group’s ongoing book sales from August through December to support the flood-damaged library’s recovery.
Waterbury library Director Rachel Muse said the volunteer friends group, meeting shortly after the July floods, wanted to take some meaningful action to help the neighboring library with its losses. They saw and heard about the extensive damage documented in news reports and on Kellogg-Hubbard Library’s social media accounts.
The Waterbury group has a perpetual book sale fundraiser that includes selections at the library that patrons may purchase along with pop-up booths at events and the summer farmers market. White said the group decided to dedicate all of its proceeds from August through December to Kellogg-Hubbard, given that its plans for a book sale had washed away.
It wasn’t long after that decision was made, White said, that a Waterbury library commissioner doing research made a discovery.
“Coincidentally, a library commissioner came across a news article in a 1929 issue of The Waterbury Record describing how the Kellogg-Hubbard Library donated $100 to the Waterbury Library after the 1927 flood,” White wrote to Groberg. According to the newspaper account, the Waterbury librarian used the funds to purchase six Windsor chairs and two reading lamps to replace items lost in the flood.
But the research didn’t stop there. Librarians, of course, are experts in information-gathering. This week, Library Commissioner Margaret Moreland tracked down the 1929 letter sent with the $100 from Kellogg-Hubbard to Waterbury’s then-flood-damaged library. Handwritten on Kellogg-Hubbard stationery and dated April 1, 1929, the letter is addressed to Waterbury librarian Mrs. Bullock. It’s signed by Montpelier librarian Evelyn S. Lease. The letter is cataloged in the Waterbury Historical Society’s collection.
It tells of how the Montpelier library received funds from the Massachusetts Library Club for “flood relief to Vermont libraries.” And how, after deducting charges related to shipping books from Massachusetts, the Montpelier library was sending $100 each to flood-hit libraries in Waterbury, Johnson and West Hartford.
“I hope you will use it for something you want very much — but which you aren’t sure will be easy to obtain … it doesn’t have to be spent for books — anything in the interest of the library,” Lease wrote.
Muse said she appreciates the librarian’s perspective on sending money rather than books. Libraries always seem to attract donations of books, but funds to purchase other materials and furnishings are usually harder to come by, she said. After a flood, the Waterbury Library clearly needed furnishings as the Waterbury Record news item documents.
During the 1900s and early 2000s, Waterbury’s library was housed in the Janes House at 28 North Main St. until the building was renovated and expanded in 2015 to add municipal offices and a modern library, creating the municipal complex.
The project replaced Waterbury’s town and village offices destroyed by flooding from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The historic home is now the Waterbury History Center with an exclusive collection of artifacts and memorabilia belonging to Civil War Army surgeon and former property owner Henry Janes.
For now, White acknowledged that the recent $1,087 contribution from Waterbury to Kellogg-Hubbard is “just a tiny fraction” of the Montpelier library’s current recovery costs.
“A library is the heart of a community, a place of learning, connection and respite. We hope that we have been able to help in some small way with Kellogg-Hubbard’s recovery, in the spirit of friendship between our two Libraries,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, the gesture coming 94 years after the Montpelier library forwarded the $100 donation is being celebrated.
“This incredibly thoughtful gesture of generosity demonstrates the long-standing friendship between our two libraries,” Kellogg-Hubbard Library Director Groberg wrote in a press release. “We stand together in our work of promoting lifelong learning for all Vermonters.”
Groberg framed the exchange as an example of paying it forward being rewarded nearly a century later. Given that the 2023 donation push from the Waterbury group took off before the discovery of the 1929 contribution, it may be closer to history simply repeating itself.
“It was kind of a coincidence,” Muse said. “But it was a cool coincidence.”
