CHAPPELL HILL LIBRARY TO RECEIVE REPAIRS THROUGH $24,000 GRANT FROM LCRA, BLUEBONNET
(middle row) Dottie Schaer, historical society grant writer; Elizabeth Rigney, historical society incoming president; Juanita Phillips, historical society member; Doug Smith, historical society treasurer; and Janice Wick, historical society secretary.
(back row) Chris Bullock, Bullock Construction; Hunter Tomachefsky, Lakeway Air Conditioning representative; Alfonso Palacios, Texas Ranch Manager representative; Deb Hinze, Texas Ranch Manager representative; Daniel Benitez, Lakeway Air Conditioning representative; and Angela Rutland, historical society administrative director.
(courtesy Lower Colorado River Authority)
The historic Chappell Hill Circulating Library will receive repairs and upgrades through a $24,093 grant from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
The grant, along with $7,000 in matching funds, will allow the Chappell Hill Historical Society to make exterior repairs to the library, which was built in the early 1900s, and add an energy-efficient air conditioner and rainwater collection system. The project will also include painting the library and the adjacent gazebo, along with landscaping.
Longtime historical society volunteer Dottie Schaer, who helped organize the project, said it will be “a general re-do for the library” and is grateful for the grant to complete it. She and her husband, John, who sits on the historical society’s board of directors, say the project will help re-invigorate the library and draw more students, researchers and history buffs to Chappell Hill.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the library was designed by architect J.W. Heartfield and was built in a Colonial Revival style. The building features a semi-circular portico supported by two Doric columns. The library houses about 3,500 historic or contemporary volumes.
The Chappell Hill Circulating Library Association formed in 1893, and much of its initial collection was donated by the family of W.G. Foote Sr., a Methodist minister who was a professor at Chappell Hill's Soule University during the mid-19th century. In 1912, the year the library was built, its collection grew significantly when Chappell Hill Female College donated many of its books after the school closed.
The gazebo on the property has been a popular spot for weddings, family photos and other events, and project organizers hope the additional landscaping will make the site useful again.
The community grant is one of 32 grants awarded recently through the LCRA’s Community Development Partnership Program. Applications for the next round of grants will be accepted in January at www.lcra.org/cdpp.