Wistful remembrances mingled with excitement for the future, as local elected officials, library staff and community members gave Patrick Henry Library in Vienna an early send-off over the weekend.
The 13,800-square-foot library building, which has stood at 101 Maple Avenue East since 1971, is set to be replaced this summer. When the branch reopens in about two years, it’ll feature not only expanded and upgraded facilities, but also an entirely new name — the Vienna-Carter Library.
Though an official closing date hasn’t been determined yet, Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) held a farewell celebration on Saturday (March 29) that invited patrons to share their memories of visiting Patrick Henry Library, while enjoying activities like an art contest and School of Rock concert and snagging commemorative bookmarks and keychains.
“We are saying goodbye to this wonderful, wonderful building. I know it’s kind of bittersweet,” Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert said during the official remarks portion of the day.
A resident of Vienna since 1968, Colbert recalled how she developed a love of reading from her mother, who accumulated more than 3,000 volunteer hours at Patrick Henry Library. Now with daughters of her own who are in their 20s and avid readers, the mayor hopes the renovated library will inspire a new generation of bookworms.
“As I talk to people throughout the community, some will … get really sad, and I say, ‘But you know what? It’s going to be even better,'” she said. “It’s going to be a new chapter in Vienna, and for so many reasons, it’s going to be better.”
Funded by a library bond referendum approved by voters in 2020, Vienna’s new library will be larger with approximately 19,000 square feet of space that can better meet the operational and programming needs of one of FCPL’s busiest community branches, Fairfax County officials say.
Operating at the level of a regional library, the branch has hosted over 7 million visitors and circulated 25 million books since FCPL began tracking visitors in July 1993, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn.
“[There’s been] great history and some amazing public service over the past few decades provided by this library and the library staff,” he observed at Saturday’s celebration.
Library expected to close later this spring
In addition to updating and adding to the library’s amenities, including an outdoor reading area and a community meeting room that will be available after hours, the project will deliver a new, 209-space parking garage with 84 spots available for general public use — a priority for the Town of Vienna and nearby businesses.
According to Alcorn, the new building is also the first in the town to be designed with the goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions in its energy use. Aiming to achieve at least LEED Gold standards, the county hopes to halve the facility’s energy use by installing all-electrical systems, a solar panel canopy on top of the four-story parking garage, and a geothermal heating and cooling system.
“This is truly going to be a landmark, not only as a library,” Alcorn said, “but also a model for basically reducing the energy consumption and a model for how we can meet our climate goals in Fairfax County.”
In anticipation of the upcoming move, Patrick Henry Library staff have started boxing up materials, and as of the beginning of April, the meeting room can no longer be reserved by the public.
A timeline for the branch’s closure and subsequent construction remains nebulous, as the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, which is in charge of the project, still needs to work out schedules and the availability of materials with a contractor, FCPL spokesperson Sara Prohaska told FFXnow.
However, Alcorn shared on Saturday that the library will likely close in mid to late May, with a temporary location opening at the Cedar Park Shopping Center in June. The 2,800-square-foot site will support material pick-ups and drop-offs as well as limited programs such as storytimes. It will have public WiFi but no computers.
Construction is expected to take approximately two years, putting the Vienna-Carter Library on track for a mid-2027 opening.
Carter family proposes plaque to tell library’s history
While the renovation project is focused on modernization, the descendants and friends of William and Lillian Carter hope to see some recognition for their role in the library’s founding recognized beyond the name on the building.
The Carters helped found a Friends of the Vienna Library group in 1958 that advocated for the Vienna Library Association to integrate the new facility it was planning at the time. The town’s original public library operated out of a one-room building at 101 Maple Avenue East from 1897 to 1962 and served only white patrons.
Black residents were forced to travel to D.C. or Manassas to get library books, according to Dee Dee Carter, a cousin of William and Lillian.
Gloria Runyon, another cousin of the Carters who has been working to raise awareness of the Town of Vienna’s African American history, says her family was fortunate enough to have books at home, but the Carters and other advocates for desegregation — including white allies like Kenton Kilmer, son of poet and Kilmer Middle School namesake Joyce Kilmer — believed firmly that the public library should be open to all.
“By the time I started school, I was reading, but it wasn’t because of attending [the Vienna library],” Runyon told FFXnow. “The point I’m trying to make is, I think that how they felt was, it was necessary.”
The Friends group ultimately prevailed, and Patrick Henry Library opened as an integrated facility at the Maple Avenue Shopping Center in 1962 before relocating to its current site a decade later.
After the surviving Carters shared their family’s story with local librarians Christopher Barbuschak and Suzanne LaPierre for their book on the desegregation of Fairfax County’s public library system, the FCPL Board of Trustees voted unanimously in February 2024 to rename Vienna’s library after its renovation.
To ensure that history doesn’t get forgotten again, Dee Dee Carter will advocate for a plaque to be installed in the new library.
“History is very important. I don’t care what anyone says. You don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat the same thing you’ve done before, and we don’t want that to happen,” she said. “We want to make sure that the Town of Vienna and the people that come to this library will know the history.”
Sujatha Hampton, vice chair of the FCPL Board of Trustees, described Patrick Henry Library as a place of freedom for her growing up as the child of Indian immigrants who arrived in Vienna when she was 7. So, she was surprised to learn from Barbuschak and LaPierre’s book that, not too long ago, she wouldn’t have been allowed access to the library.
“This library has a very, very special place in my heart — the staff, that little courtyard, those stacks, those little stacks in the children’s section that you would read everything and the tables,” Hampton said. “It was just a beautiful, wonderful place, and I’m so happy … to see this renovation. I’m so happy it will get to serve more people, that [it] will have this new name that honors this history.”
Correction: This story initially identified Gloria Runyon as a “friend of the family.” She is a cousin of Dee Dee Carter as well as Lillian and William Carter.
