History of the library

Boyne Falls Branch Library

The Library officially opened on November 22, 1965 in the Boyne Valley Township-Boyne Falls Village Hall. The library was staffed by volunteers and books were borrowed from the Grand Traverse Area Library Federation. There were approximately 560 books. Dues were paid by Boyne Valley and Hudson townships. in June of 1966 the Petoskey News Review indicated that the volunteers were having trouble keeping up with everything so they planned on attending the Hudson and Boyne Valley Township board meetings to ask each township to contribute three-tenths of a mill for library operations. If the townships agreed the Library would then be eligible for State Aid and penal fines.  The money would be used to hire part-time help and purchase books.

In 1997, Boyne Valley Township and Boyne Falls Branch Library partnered together to remodel the adjacent fire hall. There was a dual service entrance with separate space for each. In 2006 the Boyne Valley Township offices were moved to another location and another remodel project was completed in 2007.

Walloon Lake Library

The former Walloon Lake Community Church was rented by the Library prior to the most recent building project. The library had rented space for approximately twenty five years. In the summer of 1997 the Mary K. Peabody Foundation granted library funds to purchase property. The following winter the Mary K. Peabody  Foundation increased the gift to include funds for a new building via  a commitment from the community that it provide support for the Library through donations to an endowment fund to cover extra costs; to  “ensure that the library will be able to pay for the maintenance and the upkeep in the future.”

The Friends of the Library group was established specifically for the purpose of helping to raise $250,000 for the endowment fund (President, Cindy Young). The Charlevoix County Community Foundation managed the funds for the 3000 sq. ft. library.

Floyd and Todd Wright Builders began construction in April 1999 with plans to complete the project by December 1999. Architect David Osler and Associates designed the building so that it could be easily managed by one person. The first staff for the new building were Claudia Cullen and Darlene Jepsen with an opening day slated for January 4, 2000.

We've come a long way!

This timeline was created from newspaper clipping and documents found in the library's files.