This website is best viewed in a browser that supports web standards.

Skip to content or, if you would rather, Skip to navigation.

Listen Live
Donate
MARYVILLE

KXCV-KRNW


News Brief

May 22, 2025MARYVILLE, Mo. |  By: Gavin McGough

New Windows Coming to the Maryville Library’s Historic Facade

After a year-long fundraising effort, a project to replace the historic windows at the Maryville Public Library is moving forward.

After a year-long fundraising effort, a project to replace the historic windows at the Maryville Public Library is moving forward.

Download .mp3

Built as a Postal Savings Bank back in the year of 1912, the Maryville Public Library is a stout and sturdy building. Its basement windows are barred over with iron from days safeguarding the cash of local residents; after it became a library in 1962, it was designated the town’s nuclear fallout safe zone during the Cold War.

It’s stood the test of time, and its defining characteristic just might be its windows. “If you look across the facade on Main Street, you see these big, story-high, arched windows that are pretty intricate compared to the windows that are manufactured today,” said Library Director Stephanie Patterson.

But in the building's century plus history, those windows have aged, chipped, and begun to rot along the sills. A year ago, the library began looking into replacements. It turns out, doing the job right would be costly. According to Patterson, the library’s “operating budget wasn’t even close to being able to cover the cost of a restoration.”

The library turned to fundraising: it gathered over $250,000 from donations, alongside a grant from the New Jersey based Bolger Foundation, to cover the costs.

Patterson says those funds are now secure, and the library is meeting with local contractors to discuss plans for the work. They hope to have the project complete by July of 2026. That may sound like a long way off, but Patterson says the work matters to both the community and the library’s donors.

“We want to get the job done right for them. And that’s what we’re working on right now,” she said.

Once a contractor is chosen, the project timeline and any partial library closures will start coming into focus.