Amid a steady noise of construction work rattling from inside the historic Vogt home on the shores of Birch Bay, the Whatcom County Library System on Tuesday celebrated another major milestone in the decade-long effort to build the community’s first brick-and-mortar library.
Representatives from the library system, as well as state Sen. Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham) spoke to a gathering of people in the front yard of the Vogt home at 7948 Birch Bay Drive, commending years of fundraising efforts that seem to have finally paid off.
The library system awarded Bellingham-based Summit Construction Group with a $1.4 million contract in May to renovate and upgrade the historic home into a 1,700 square foot library and community gathering space.
Construction is expected to take the rest of this year. The library should be renovated and packed with books by early 2027, according to library system representatives.
Tuesday’sThe event marked the transition from fundraising, networking and public outreach to construction, and most at the ceremony couldn’t hold in their excitement for a library with perhaps the best view in the state, overlooking Birch Bay.
Di Marrs-Smith, branch manager for Lynden and Birch Bay and the former president of Friends of Birch Bay Library, said the community has been waiting with bated breath for not only a place to check out books, but for a communal space as well.
“This is going to be the first seven days a week gathering place, it’s a big deal for us,” Marrs-Smith said. “We’re also saving a piece of history, and preserving that shoreline for people as well.”
After selling what she estimated was around 5,000 hot dogs, an uncountable quantity of cotton candy, and hosting scores of other fundraising events since Friends of Birch Bay Library started its effort in earnest around 2017, Marrs-Smith wanted to show gratitude for all the people who helped along the way, both with Friends of Birch Bay Library and otherwise.
The group started with around a hundred dollars in 2017, Marrs-Smith said, and slowly raised money from individuals, corporations, Whatcom Community Foundation donors, online fundraisers, auctions, fun runs — you name it.
“It’s just so heartwarming,” Marrs-Smith said. “People will say to me, ‘I don’t have time or I don’t have money, but I can help a little.’ All of that help built up over the years, and it really does take all of those little pieces.”
A group of library supporters met in February 2015 to discuss funding a library, later forming as Friends of the Birch Bay Library. Birch Bay residents Gary and Cindy Lou Vogt offered to sell their family’s 1913 home to the library system the following year.
The library system attempted to create a new taxing district to help with funding construction for what was originally a $6.5 million renovation plan, but efforts failed at the ballot box in November 2021 and February 2022. That plan was scrapped, and a less expansive renovation is now taking place.
WCLS hired Seattle-based firm Osborn Architects Inc. to design the new library, which will be staffed 20 hours a week, featuring a book drop-off and pickup area that will be available all other times of day with a library card.
The library also will feature computers, printers and 6,000 square feet of yard space the library system plans to use for community events, Deputy Director Michael Cox said.
“Some people thought that this just wasn’t ever going to happen,” Cox said from the front yard of the Vogt home. “We’ve had some setbacks along the way, but now we have boots on the ground, siding coming down and we’re choosing paint colors.”
