New Crozet Library Brings Community Together

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Train depot station. Green Olive Tree. A small white building across the train station. For numerous years, the Crozet Library has searched scrutinously for a home, constantly looking for the ideal location to shelter books, learning, and a community. After years of shifting back and forth between different places, the library has finally settled down and found its perfect home.

“A new and bigger Crozet library has always been an envisioned dream, but it has never really materialized until now,” Allie Haddix, the young adult librarian, said. After nearly a year of construction, the new library celebrated its official grand opening on Sept. 28. The whole community gathered together and commemorated the day with festive ribbon cutting and folk dancing & music.

The new Crozet Library has greatly expanded in space, books, and technology. There are 2 meeting rooms that hold 8-12 and a large one that holds up to 60. These meeting rooms are available for the public to reserve and utilize for study groups, events, and meetups. In addition to numerous seating options and more public computers, the Crozet Library is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certified library in Albemarle County.

Haddix said that teens benefit from the new library too: “Now the teens finally have an actual space! The teen section has comfy chairs, tables with outlets on them for plugging in electronic devices, and 6 computers.  We also added hundreds of new books to the teen collection.”

Many students have questioned what would be on the bottom floor of the Crozet library. While the top floor contains the library, the bottom floor still remains an uncertain mystery. “I heard there is going to be a coffee shop under the main level of the library,” Olivia Cornish, a sophomore, said. Other sources have different proposals. “On one side of the bottom floor will be a locally-owned running store.  The other side might be a visitor’s center, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.  One day, in the distant future, the library will hopefully be able to use the bottom floor to expand into,” Haddix said.

“Seeing the new Crozet Library is always a shock for me. It’s completely surreal. I have lived in this town for my whole life and have never seen anything so extraordinary,” Mrs. June Andrews, a Green Olive Tree employee, said, “I’ve seen the library evolve over the years: from a small train depot station to the popular enormous building currently. It’s really unbelievable and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.”